Chronicles of the Crusade Book 1: The Gateway
by JonHarper
Summary: The Earth Alliance has been attacked by the Drahk leaving Earth Quarantined with the Plague. As the ISA searches the Galaxy looking for a cure help comes from a most ulikely source. Stargate Command.
1. Prologue: To Absent Friends

This a jointly authored story by Lord of Misrule. Jon Harper and Tyr. It starts between the End of Season 8 and the begging of Season 9 in the Stargate Universe.(before the Daedalus departs for Atlantis.) For the Babylon 5 side, it's set during the opening of Crusade in Babylon 5 during the Movie "A Call to Arms."

None of us claim ownership of Stargate and its spinoff Atlantis nor do we claim Ownership of Babylon 5 and its spinoff Crusade. This story is for entertainment only, and not profit.

Now onto the story

Chronicles of the Crusade

Prologue: To Absent Friends.

Minbar, 2281

Sheridan roared with laughter. "He was no help, he just stood there laughing! It was eating through my uniform!"

"That was the funny part!" Garibaldi countered with uncontrollable laughter, the glass of water sloshing over his hand.

"Where's my PPG!" Sheridan joked reaching for an imaginary gun. "Somebody get me a gun!"

The table dissolved in laughter, all but Delenn who noted concern and a weight on Ivanova's mind. She was thinking of something else, lost in the possibilities of the future and the bonds of the past. She heard Vir talk, his story turning from glee into solemn remembrance.

"I said 'we should go, this is upsetting you!'"

She watched the Centauri Emperor, remembering the round faced and innocent young diplomat from over twenty years ago, so much had changed, so much had happened. They just weren't the same people they had been all those years ago.

"You know despite all the terrible things he did, I still miss him." Vir said gently, the feeling in his voice unhidden and clear to each of them around the table. For a long moment they shared his silence, then Sheridan raised his glass.

"To absent friends, in memory still bright."

"G'Kar." Garibaldi proposed.

"Londo." Echoed Vir.

"Lennier." Intoned Delenn.

"Marc…" began Franklin.

"Marcus." Ivanova ended.

They drank slowly, the faces from the past emerging from shadowed minds like ghosts. They had come so far and done so much, but too many would not be able to share in the fruits of their victory, so many had fallen in the trials needed to form this future, so many deaths to protect what they had clawed away from cold and aloof beings, so many had sacrificed and had not been rewarded.

"We will remember them for as long as we live." Sheridan said. "And for as long as our civilization exists, so will their memories."

"This is the twentieth anniversary of our victory over the Shadows." Delenn said. "And the fifteenth anniversary of our new age, when we made contact with our friends from across the dimensions."

"Hmm." Garibaldi grunted as he swallowed a shot of pre water. "Hell of a time for us, for all of us."

"No kidding," Steven Franklin joined in. "Without those guys, well who can say where we'd be? It would have made this future harder to grasp."

"Transgalactic travel, advanced Starships, teleporters." Garibaldi made a list. "It let us turn the ISA into a multi Galaxy spanning autority. Amazing."

"And the medical leaps we've had, working together to find cures for our diseases and theirs, it benefited us all."

"Not to mention you found another Earth to share your culture with." Vir grinned. "That must have been amazing."

"But look at the cost." Ivanova said quietly. "Hundreds of millions dead, maybe billions, both our galaxies threatened with conquest and extermination. Its amazing any of us lived through it."

"But we did." Sheridan said. "And I've never felt better. Another toast, to the future, and to Stargate Command."

The table raised their glasses once more and drank, this time with greater joy.

"Stargate command." They joined.

"And especially the _Daedalus_." Ivanova stated. "That little ship turned our galaxy upside down."

"A fine vessel." Garibaldi agreed. "And a good crew."

"The official ceremony will be held at Earth in a day of two." Delenn informed them. "Representatives from the old SGC will meet us there and reflect on the bond we formed in the face of that crisis."

"Fifteen years." Franklin shrugged. "hard to believe where the time goes, and the people."

"So, remember how that day started?" Sheridan smiled. "It could have been better."

"You mean when the Drakh attacked Earth?" Garibaldi scoffed. "Yeah, that was pretty good timing."

Ivanova took another sip of champagne, she looked into the half full glass, watching the bubbles fizzing and popping, constant tiny explosions like a distant battle, something she had seen plenty of. The battle that had happened on this day Fifteen years ago had been something else though, and unbidden and unwanted her mind settled on that fateful day when it had all changed.


	2. Chapter 1: Flight of the Daedalus

**Chapter 1: Flight of the Daedalus**

**September 14 2004.**

Space; it is both majestic and incomprehensively vast, with stars that light the sky like fireflies trapped in a black abyss. Space holds many wonders but also many dangers yet despite this for many years the people of the Tau'ri have looked to those same stars and dreamt or worlds beyond their little blue ball in their small corner of the Galaxy. Aboard the United States Air force Battlecruiser "Daedalus" orbiting that said planet Dr Lindsey Novak stood transfixed at the sight of Earth before her. Novak a former NASA engineer stood at 5ft 4in tall with blonde hair brown eyes and a nervous personality.  
She had been recruited by the SGC the year before and had quickly proven herself to be a great asset to the program despite her nervous nature. Her work in designing interfaces between Earths built systems and Asgard technology had been a major breakthrough for Earth, and the fulfillment of a dream of hers; to fly among the stars. Novak had been so transfixed by the view before her she never heard the person who approached from behind her.

"Can I help you?" A distinctly strong yet feminine voice said behind her. Novak startled from her revere, turned coming face to face with the ships primary helmsman and first officer Major Karen Foster.  
Foster a 14yr veteran of the Air force had started her career flying the F-15 Eagle. 3yrs ago she had been handpicked by Space Command to be one of the lead helmsmen for the then "Prometheus project". After a 1 1/2 aboard Prometheus (in which it saw more time in dry-dock than space) Foster was reassigned to Stargate command for additional training just missing the battle with Anubis's fleet. Now several months later she was the primary helmsman aboard the "Daedalus" Earth's second battlecruiser, it was something she was immensely proud of.

"Oh! Ahhh… hello…I'm Doctor Lindsey Novak I'm hear to replace Chief Hernandez for the continuation of Daedalus's Shake down cruise." Novak stuttered slightly caught off guard as she extended her hand to Foster who promptly returned her handshake.

"I'm aware of who you are doctor but I was wondering what you are doing on the bridge." Foster countered getting straight to the point she like many in the Stargate program tended to go straight for the jugular.

"I'm Looking for Colonel Caldwell, I was told to check in with him once I settled in. I thought this would be the most likely place to find him." Novakoffered meekly.

"Colonel Caldwell is currently reviewing the AAR (After Action Report) pertaining to our mock battle against Prometheus. He should return momentarily." Foster informed her.

"So…how'd it go?" Novak asked innocently trying to make conversation. The sharp pointed look she received from Foster told her the subject was still a sore point with her. Novak held her hands up in mock surrender

"Ok...touchy subject."

In Truth the Daedalus's performance had been less than stellar when facing off against the more experienced crew of Prometheus. Colonel Ronson, who'd been pulled from the Vandenberg training facility specifically for this test, had been able to fight the Daedalus to a standstill despite all of Daedalus's technological advantages over the Prometheus. That coupled with an accident in engineering at the conclusion of the exercise that injured Chief Engineer Jose Hernandez was the reason Daedalus was back in Earth orbit, and the reason Novak had been reassigned to the Daedalus.

"Well since he's not here at the moment could you tell him I stopped by to check in?" Novak asked hopefully. Before Foster could respond a powerful male voice answered from behind Novak.

"That won't be necessary doctor." The voice of Col. Steven Caldwell called out as he approached the two. Novak turned to find herself face to face with the Ships commander.

"Welcome aboard the Daedalus doctor I'm Col. Caldwell. You come highly recommended by General Hammond." Caldwell said extending his hand. At 6ft 1in tall balding, Col. Caldwell carried a Presence about him that screamed Command.  
Caldwell a 22yr Air force veteran had started his career in the Air Force flying various types of fighter bombers. When the Gulf War kicked off then Capt Caldwell had been assigned to a squadron of F-117 dropping ordinance deep into the Heart of Baghdad. 2yrs later he transferred to the new B-2 spirit bombers based out of Whiteman Air Force base.  
Then Major Caldwell was one of the first pilots to fly the B-2 during the Bosnian and later Kosovo campaigns. After the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 Col. Caldwell led the squadron during combat operations in Afghanistan to topple the Taliban.  
Shortly after combat operations had concluded he had been recruited by Space Command and later selected to command the Daedalus.

Novak took the Colonels hand "A pleasure to meet you sir, thank you." she said slightly intimidated by his presence.

"Doctor I've assumed you've read up on the accident in Engineering following our mock battle against Prometheus?" Caldwell asked getting down to business.

"I have Colonel and I believe it's a flaw in the ships secondary power distribution system, specifically the control crystals. Chief Hernandez bypassed the safeties causing EM feedback in the reactor control crystals. It's the same little Trick LtCol. Carter used on Prometheus last year to…"

"Doctor." Col. Caldwell said cutting her off before his annoyance got the better of him. "Bottom line, how long is it going to take to fix my ship?" he asked to keep her focused on the matter at hand.

"Well Colonel I'd have to do a diagnostic of the entire power distribution system, check the integrity of each crystal, possibly replace several naquada relays and realign…." Novak trailed off after noticing the annoyed look on the Colonels face. "Ahhhh 2 days, maybe 1 depending on how bad the damage is." She stammered.  
Col. Caldwell paused to take in what Doctor Novak had told him. 2 days to fix the power distribution system then Daedalus would be back in fighting form.

"Very well doctor, get it done and report back when that's accomplished." Caldwell ordered.

"Yes sir." Novak replied in a hurry to get to Engineering, she had almost made her escape before Major Foster called after her. "Doctor Novak." Major Foster called out as she reached the doctor. Both women exited the bridge heading down the main corridor from the bridge.

"Yes Major Foster?" Novak asked as Major Foster came up along side her.

"You do know we have an Asgard Engineer aboard the Daedalus right?" Foster asked. "He's here to assist us in operating the Asgard technology integrated in Daedalus's design." Foster informed her.

"Yes I was briefed about it just before taking on this assignment." Novak answered before adding "I've worked with several Asgard in the past when designing the interfaces for their systems." Novak said then as if a thought occurred to her "I believe his name is Hermiod?"

"I see." Foster said. "But have you met THIS particular Asgard?" Foster asked emphasizing Hermiod.

"No I Haven't." Novak answered. "What's so special about this particular Asgard?" Novak asked catching the emphasis.

"Just that he's very opinionated and not afraid to voice those opinions." Foster said.  
Both Women reached a corridor that branched off into different directions and stopped turning to face each other.

"Is that a problem?" Novak asked slightly confused. "I thought the Asgard liked us?"

"Most of them do." Foster responded. 'But not all of them."  
At Novak's confused expression Foster continued.

"You see Hermiod was an Engineer of high esteem among the Asgard." Foster began. "His primary mission was to design new weapons and technology to defeat the Replicators.  
When SG-1 intervened on behalf of Thor, Hermiod was one of the more vocal critics of their involvement. After SG-1 defeated the Replicators at Dakara he lost considerable support among many in the high council. Then as if to add insult to injury he was reassigned personally by Supreme Commander Thor to help in the Construction and Operation of Daedalus." Foster finished.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he's not too pleased about that?' Novak asked with dawning realization. The knowing smile on Foster's face told her she hit the nail on the head.

"Don't worry Doctor I'm sure he'll respond more favorable to you than he did to any of us."Foster said.

"I feel comforted already." Novak responded dryly.

"I'm sure you'll be fine Doctor." Foster responded _otherwise the little guy is going to eat you for lunch_ Foster thought to herself.

"Lindsey." Novak said after a brief pause.

"I'm sorry?" Foster said slightly confused.

"My first name is Lindsey." Novak said. "What's yours?"

"Karen." Foster replied warming up to the women by a few degrees "Look I apologize if I seemed rude on the Bridge earlier. We're a tight nit group and the loss of Chief Hernandez has hit the crew pretty hard, it's going to take some getting used to.' Foster admitted.

"I understand." Novak said. And in truth she did, this crew had trained together for the better part of a year, in that time the crew had become very close almost like family. She could understand them being somewhat resentful of an outsider coming in and taking over for one of their own. "I'll do my best." Was all she could think say.

"I'm sure you will Lindsey." Foster said genuinely. A beeping coming from her right wrist caught her attention. She brought her arm up to look at her watch before returning her attention back to Novak. "Look I'm off duty now so I'm about to hit the Rack I've got the nightshift tonight. I'll see you around Doctor." Foster said by way of departing.

"Have a good night Karen." Novak responded.

The two women separated at the intersection each heading for their respective destinations. For Lindsey Novak it was engineering. Four minutes later and five decks down through a virtual maze of corridors Novak arrived at her destination. As she entered engineering she spotted Hermiod immediatelywho wasworking on his console. If he wasaware of her presence he made no acknowledgement of it.

"Uhh hello I'm Doctor Lindsey Novak I'm hear to replace Chief Hernandez." Novak said with a little too much cheerfulness in her voice. Hermiod stopped whatever action he was doing bringing his full attention to Novak. He seemed to scrutinize her for a moment before narrowing his eyes and muttering something under his breath in his native Asgard before returning his attention back to his console. The fake smile Novak wore on her face melted into a grimace after being completely dismissed out of hand like that, just as she remember something Foster told her a few minutes earlier _oh yeah he's really starting to warm up to me._

**48 hours later**

"Try it now!" Novak said. She had just finished realigning the reactor control crystals and this was the first full power test to see if the flaws had been "Ironed Out" It had been a frustrating 48hours made even more so by the condescending attitude of Hermiod as he continued to belittle her work.

"It is not working. Your calculations are out of sync by .2 degrees." Hermiod said in condescending tone of voice. As he was talking he made the necessary modifications to the system which brought them back into sync negating 3hours of work done by Novak.

Novak bit her lip to fight back and angry reply. She took a deep breath to calm herself before she spoke slow and deliberately "If you could have done that 3hours ago why didn't you?"

"It is not my responsibility." Hermiod replied evenly "I am merely here to observe that Asgard technology is not abused. Occasionally I can and will advise you, but as you humans say 'This is your show'.

Novak had to bit back an angry retort"you know we also have another saying, there is no I in team." she said trying to reason with him.

"I have just told you I am not a member of "your" team." Hermiod responded as if talking to a child. "I am merely here to Advi…

"Advise! Yes I know." Novak said cutting him off. 'But you have to understand that anything that affects this ship and crew will affect you too." Novak said trying to press the point "Whether you like it or not."

Before Hermiod could respond the Voice of Col. Caldwell came over the loudspeakers  
"_Engineering, Bridge_."

Tapping her earpiece Novak spoke into her mike "engineering, go ahead."

"_Doctor what's your status_?" Caldwell demanded getting to the point.

"Colonel Repairs are complete and we are ready to proceed." Novak responded tossing Hermiod an annoyed look which he promptly ignored.

**BRIDGE**

"Understood Doctor Good Work, Bridge out." Col. Caldwell said rising from his command chair. The atmosphere on the bridge was one of anticipation as the various crewmen carried out their tasks with a sense of urgency, it was game time now. Walking towards the forward view port on the bridge Caldwell took a moment to take in the view of Earth one last time before turning back to face his crew.

"Major Foster!" Caldwell snapped.

"Sir?" she replied from her station.

"Prepare to break orbit, set course for the Asteroid belt full military thrust." Caldwell ordered before retaking his seat.

"Setting course 030 mark 113, engaging sub light drives to full sir."

"Proceed." He ordered.

Daedalus's sub light Ion based drives ignited propelling the ship forward allowing the Daedalus to break orbit, Her Inertial compensator systems meant her crew only felt the slightest hint of her rapid acceleration. That same inertial dampening technology also allowed her to maintain her orientation in space as well as vector her inertia. This meant the ship could turn on a dime with out the use of heavy RCS thrusters. It also meant Daedalus could maintain her velocity no matter which direction she turned without losing her momentum. It was the same system pioneered on the F-302s and it made all the difference when maneuvering in space. 45 minutes later Daedalus arrived at her intended destination; the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

"We have arrived at the designated coordinates sir." Foster Reported.

"Very well, Weps begin a scan of the asteroid field; let's do this by the numbers." Caldwell stated.

Weps (aka) Lt Shane Miguel of the United States Navy had been a last minute addition to the Daedalus. The Navy having almost no role in the Stargate Program (unless it meant recovering alien ships from the Ocean floor), had been waging a battle at the highest levels beaurocracy know as the Pentagon to gain control of the growing space fleet. The Navy argument had stated that while the Air Force should lead the way in research and development of new technologies (such as the 302 and 303s).

It was the Navy that had the resources, manpower and expertise to draw upon to effectively make the prospect of a space fleet a reality. While the Air Force did have good people it didn't have them in sufficiently large numbers to make a space fleet under their control a viable option. All the navy had to do was retool their training programs, and facilities for spaceflight operations instead of the Blue water operations it was tailored to suit, a task they conceded would take years unless they had the help from the Air Force.  
The Navy was also looking into the prospect of retooling its current ship yards and infrastructure to enhance shipbuilding production in a "Post Disclosure" world; so far the Joint Chiefs were currently reviewing the proposal.  
An officer exchange program had already been agreed upon by both services (mostly to help the Air Force which had been hemorrhaging for military trained personnel). Currently the first batch of naval officers and enlisted crew were currently serving aboard both Prometheus and Daedalus alongside their Air Force counterparts. The newer ships still under construction; Odyssey, Nemesis, Theseus, Achillies and Argo would boast significantly more naval personnel than the aif force, a trend that was liable to continue as the Navy's involvment increased.  
One of them being Lt. Shane Miguel.

Miguel a 6 yr veteran of surface warships in the Navy was used to working on the AEGIS systems mounted on Ali burke class destroyers and Ticonderoga cruisers, having "Grownup" aboard just such a cruiser the USS Shiloh (CG-67).  
During operation Enduring Freedom he had been the Weapons officer who'd launched Tomahawk missiles into Afghanistan. That had pretty much been the extent of his "combat experience" which was the primary reason Col. Caldwell paid particular attention to his performance, to bring him up to par with the more experienced personnel.  
The systems of the Daedalus though insanely more advanced and powerful than what he'd been used to, were familiar to him. It didn't take him long to adapt and utilize the systems to their maximum potential, right now he focused all his concentration on his display as the laser and microwave scanners of his Radar and Lidar probed the asteroid field.

The scanners themselves were next genration Radar and Lidar technologies boosting all of the latest inovations learned from Goa'uld scanners from a Al'Kesh SG-1 had recovered a year ago. The study of the sensor systems had advanced Radar/Lidar Technology immensely. However should he havefelt the need for more detailed scans he could always use the Asgard sensor pallets integrated into the ship sensor suit. Currently he decided to stick to the more familiar human built systems.

"Colonel I'm reading multiple contacts; Tally13 asteroid fragments 7,000km off our bow, starboard side 10 degree "up" angle sir." Miguel reported.

"Do any of these fragments correspond to the specifications LtCol. Carter provided?" Col. Caldwell asked.

"Yes sir, 2 of them I have both targets designated sierras 1 and 2 sir." Lt. Miguel reported.

"Very well, initiate a full spectrum scam of target sierra 1 Thermo graphics, Microwave/lidar and even the Asgard sensors; let's put them through the paces." Col. Caldwell responded.

"Yes sir." Lt. Miguel responded, with just a hint of excitement. After several seconds information began pouring across his displays. "The asteroid is a mix of mostly high levels of nickel and Iron, with scattered readings of copper. More than 40 of its surface is covered in ice sir."

"The perfect target to test out the Rail guns wouldn't you say weps?" the Colonel asked.

"Picture perfect sir." LtCmdr. Miguel replied.

"Alright then, Arm all Rail Guns prepare to fire."

"Yes sir." Lt. Miguel said.

"_Hold Colonel_." The voice of Hermiod came over the ships loudspeaker.

"What is it Hermiod?" the Colonel asked. While Hermiod may be an arrogant pain in the ass he typically didn't interrupt training unless he had a good reason.

"_I am picking up an anomalous reading emanating from with in the asteroid field_." Hermiod reported.

"What kind of anomaly?" Col. Caldwell asked pressing for details.

"_I am unable to determine at this time, the sensor returns are very weak due to the amount of debris within the asteroid field, we will have to move further within the field for more detailed information_." Hermiod reported over the ships loudspeaker.

Caldwell considered his options for a moment before turning his attention to his weapons officer. Lt. Miguel was frantically working his controls trying to bring up any information on the anomaly Hermiod had reported, after about 30 seconds he brought his attention to Col. Caldwell and shook his head.

"Sir I've got nothing on my scope." Lt. Miguel reported frustrated.

"_You will not find the information you are looking for with your primitive microwave and laser based sensor systems_." Hermiod berrated." I am sending you the information I have from the better equipped Asgard based scanners."

"Receiving." Lt. Miguel stated as the information scrolled across his display. "I've got it, it's very faint though, and it's only present when we radiate the active scanners. What were getting back is…well the best way I can describe it is a sort of echo sir." Lt. Miguel reported trying to make sense of the information scrolling across his display console.

"_A crude but apt comparison_." Hermiod added over the net.

Colonel Caldwell remained silent for a moment as if considering his options before returning his attention back to Lt. Miguel.

"Lieutenant have our targeting scanners been recalibrated?"

"It was the first thing done after the Mock battle against Prometheus sir." Lt. Miguel answered.

"Hermiod I need you to transfer control of the targeting scanners to weps." Col. Caldwell ordered.

"_Transferring full control Colonel_." Hermiod reported over the loudspeaker.

"Foster plot the quickest route to the anomaly." Caldwell ordered

"Aye Colonel, be advised our ability to maneuver will be seriously hampered by debris within the asteroid field the further in we go.

"Acknowledged." was his only reply. Then bringing his attention to Lt. Miguel.

"Weps set shields to maximum, arm all Rail Guns, load VLS tubes 1-6 with mark 8 tacticals, tubes 9-18 with standard anti-ship ordinance."

Aye, Sir!" Lt. Miguel responded.

"Sir I have the coordinates locked in." Major Foster announced.

"Precede best possible speed." Caldwell ordered.

"Yes sir." Foster replied.

Daedalus's engines once again flared to life as the ship began to move deeper into the asteroid field. Several times Major Foster had to adjust her course from colliding with a nearby asteroid; the damn things were constantly in motion. After 10 nerves racking minutes Daedalus had managed to close the range with the Anomalous reading.

"Weps have you got anything?" Colonel Caldwell asked

"Yes sir it should be just on the other side of this asteroid as we pass it." Lt. Miguel said. "Contact is definitely firming up."

The Daedalus rounded the large asteroid to starboard only to come within a huge area of open space with no form of debris to cloud the Daedalus's flight path. Surprising as that was it wasn't as surprising as what lay before them.

"Sweet Jesus!" Lt. Miguel gasped when he saw the monstrosity come into view.

"My God!" Major Foster whispered to herself.

Colonel Caldwell rose from his chair and walked forward until he was facing the forward viewer, to say he was stunned at the majestic sight would be an understatement. He had expected a surprise Goa'uld attack, or one of a hundred different scenarios playing out, but not this. The Object for lack of a better word was oval shaped with a hollow center; similar in appearance to a stargate but not quit. It floated freely in space and had a smooth texture to it that appeared at first glance to be silver in color. Upon further inspection Col. Caldwell noted as his eyes moved to the center of the object that it bore a metallic grey color. The object was adorned in strange writings that the Colonel couldn't make out but seemed familiar.

Turing to his Weapons officer he spoke "Weps what have you got on scans?"

After taking a few seconds to review the data on his display Lt. Miguel turned his attention back to his Co. "Sir our Radar and Lidar scanners still don't read anything. I'm only getting returns from the Asgard based scanners."

"Spit it out weps." The Colonel ordered.

"The Object is about 3 miles high and 4 miles wide. It is comprised mostly of Naquada and some Trinium. There's also some other element I can't determine, sensors don't recognize it at all but it's very similar to Naquada." Lt. Miguel reported.

"Naquadria?" The Colonel asked bringing his full attention to bear on the object floating before the Daedalus.

"No sir." Lt. Miguel replied "What ever it is, it's completely stable. I've never seen anything like." Lt. Miguel announced in wonder.

"I bet I know someone who has." Colonel Caldwell said to no one in particular as he activated his comm. Link to engineering.

"Hermiod, this is the Bridge are you receiving this?"

**ENGINEERING**

In engineering a picture of the object floated on the master display screen as both Hermiod and Novak studied it in wonder.

"Indeed I am Colonel." Hermiod responded.

"_Have you seen anything like this before_?" Caldwell asked over the loudspeaker.

"I have not Colonel." Hermiod answered "However I believe the device is Ancient in Origin." Hermiod responded, answering the unasked question. "We will have to get closer to the device if I am to get more detailed readings to determine its function."

"_Is there any threat to the ship_?" Colonel Caldwell asked with noticeable concern in his voice.

"None that I can determine Colonel, the device is completely inert; there is no cause for concern." Hermiod responded.

"_Very well, conduct you scans and report once you have something, Bridge out_." Caldwell said cutting the link.

"So do you need any help?" Novak asked enthusiastically.

"I am more than capable of handling a few simple scans." Hermiod responded.

"A simple no would have sufficed." Novak shot back.

Several minutes had elapsed as Daedalus cautiously approached the object, Her Asgard sensors probing the device intimately; however what no one had anticipated was that the device was sensitive to certain subspace frequencies, certain frequencies that the Daedalus was currently probing the object with fromher AsgardScanners.

**BRIDGE**

"WOW!" Lt. Miguel gasped as he looked at his display.

"What is it?" Col. Caldwell asked catching the surprise in his voice.

"Sir the damn thing just lit up like a Christmas tree! Thermo graphics reading a massive energy buildup within the device!" Lt. Miguel announced.

"Foster get us out of hear Max thrust!" Colonel Caldwell ordered

"Max Thrust yes sir!" she responded while frantically working her controls, but the ship remained stationary.

"Foster why aren't we moving?" Colonel Caldwell asked with growing alarm.

"I'm not sure Sir. I engaged the sub light drives but nothing happened, I'm reading full power to the drives sir!" Foster reported

"Hermiod what the hell is going on?" Col. Caldwell demanded.

"_The device has encased the ship in some sort of focused gravitational beam. We are unable to maneuver as long as the device contains us_." Hermiod reported.

"Hermiod I don't care what you and Novak have to do but I want my ship free and clear." Col. Caldwell demanded.

"Sir Energy readings are off the chart, Reading some sort of highly focused EM emissions sweeping the ship!" Lt. Miguel reported.

"Jam it!" Col. Caldwell ordered.

"It's extremely powerful sir, it's cutting through our ECM field as if it wasn't there." Lt. Miguel reported.

"Standby hyper drive, get us back to Earth Foster." Col. Caldwell ordered. He took a glance out the window to notice 4 points on the object glowing a bright white while the inner edges of the device glowed a softer yellow color, and with each passing moment they continued to get brighter.

"_Colonel this is Novak in engineering the gravitational and magnetic field is interfering with our ability to create a hyperspace window. In addition if we don't power down the sub light drives soon they'll overload_!" Novak exclaimed over the net.

"Understood doctor. Hermiod I need options now." Caldwell said.

"_I have none to offer Colonel; I can find no way to break the gravitational field with the limited means at my disposal_." Hermiod reported. Colonel Caldwell sat back in his command chair feeling totally helpless, there was nothing they could do to escape what ever fate awaited them but maybe they could warn Earth.

"Foster! Flash dump our logs to the SGC they have to know what happened hear." Caldwell ordered.

"Unable to comply Colonel, the object is interfering with out bound communication I can try to…….

She never got to finish her sentence because at that same moment 4 beams of light struck the Daedalus and the world seemed to end in light.


	3. Chapter 1 Continued

Sol system, Earth Alliance.

November, 2266

"What I want to know is why?" Captain Susan Ivanova complained. "Why we are still here in Earth space after completing trials, after proving our readiness and after making sure none of us were President Clarks ultra loyal nut case freaks!" She sighed heavily and slouched in her command chair, the monitors beside showing the peaceful scene in Earth orbit as ships gathered.

"Well, at least you weren't one of Clarks nut case freaks." Commander Alan Morton offered helpfully and earned himself a scathing look from his Captain. "Or any kind of nutcase freak at all." He added quickly.

"Its just you know, we joined Earth force to see the galaxy, sure we have to expect the odd fixed post, but as a Starship Captain I expected to move a round a bit, see the League and maybe even travel to Minbar." Ivanova waved her hands. "But no, we haven't left the home system in three years! Its getting a little boring."

"I guess sitting on Babylon 5 all those years must have been dull." Morton suggested.

"I wish!" she exclaimed. "One thing B5 never was, was dull. But it was different, when I transferred back to the fleet I expected more, especially with this new ship."

Ivanova was referring to her command, the _EAS Titans_, one of the first of Earth forces new _Warlock_ class heavy destroyers build up to the limits of human technology. They were formidable ships quantum leaps beyond vessels from just a few decades ago, but they had never been tried in pitched battle and had a troubled history with numerous redesigns since their origins in the Clark era. The _Titans_ had been a test bed for all these trials and modifications and as such had spent as much time in dock as on deployment.

"But at least we're looking good now." Morton smiled helpfully. "Our gravitic drive and artificial gravity are all checked out thanks to the ISA programme, and the class is in full production now."

It had taken a while, but the _Warlock_ project had become Earths new frontier in both science and defence with massive retooling of the old _Omega_ yards to begin full construction of the new destroyer by the hundreds. The galaxy was at peace, but it seemed that tensions were still growing especially with the Centauri Republic which seemed to be collapsing in on itself. Raiders were still hitting the occasional shipping line and there were constant rumours of left over Shadow technology and weapons in the hands of their left behind servants. For the Earth Alliance the more recent concerns had revolved around the break up of the Psicorps and the large number of dangerous Telepaths roaming Earth space and beyond trying to destabilise the government with hidden assets. One or two Psicorps mother ships had been found and destroyed, but there were potentially dozens more floating around hiding from detection.

"All the more reason for us to be out there doing something." Ivanova waved her hand directionless towards the front of the ship. "Not sat in Earth orbit on another exercise." She had decided that no ship in history had gone through so many exercises, it seemed Earth force command wanted to play out every possible scenario with the early _Warlocks_ to see how they behaved before letting them loose on the galaxy, and she was getting sick of it. "This is a punishment you know," she continued. "Give me this fine ship and adequate first officer, and then lock me up at home and not let me take it out for a spin!"

"Well thanks for the praise." Morton half smiled, he was used to Ivanova's odd humour but also recognized no one could be as cool as her in a crisis. On a few occasions some of the more experimental systems had suffered major faults and Ivanova's calm and rapid response had averted disaster. She also had an incredible combat record thanks to her time on Babylon 5, just about anyone from that station was a hero and serving under her command on Earthforce's best ship was a real dream assignment, one Morton was damn glad to receive despite the lack of adventure.

"I mean we got everything working a year ago, its time we took up the frontline duties we trained for." She said with exasperation.

"Well look on the plus side, this is a massive exercise, and real short notice." Morton grinned. "Kinda exciting."

"Yeah. Woohoo." Ivanova groaned.

"Its on the Presidents direct request." Morton said, "I've never heard anything like it."

"President Luchenko?" she asked with a frown, speaking of the Earth Alliance leader. "I thought it was General Denisov's idea, he gave the orders."

"No and no." Morton said, pleased to be delivering the information. "Its from President Sheridan, I think you used to hang out together once or twice?"

"So I recall." She said flatly. "Wonder why he's making ripples in Earth space, I'd have thought Luchenko wouldn't have released so many ships at once."

The fleet at Earth was truly impressive, hundreds of Earth force destroyers had gathered along with a wealth of allied vessels ranging from Brakiri cruiser and Drazi _Sunhawks_ right up to the over bearing Minbari Warcruisers, still an intimidating sight after all these years and the source of a deep seated unease among most humans. Some wounds took a very long time to heal.

"They must have called in every single ship in range." Morton agreed. "I've never seen anything like it."

"I have," Ivanova gritted her teeth. "Couple of times, didn't tend to end pretty."

"But this is an exercise, I wonder what it'll be based on?"

"A surprise attack on Earth I guess." She shrugged. "I dunno, but all these ships here mean the patrols aren't out there, it'll be open season for raiders and Pirates. What's John thinking?"

From their right hand side on the bridge a chime sounded, the duty officer gave it her attention and read off the report.

"It's a jump point, reading two vessels, unknown configuration."

"Get a scan of them." Ivanova said as she stood. The _Warlocks_ had basic artificial gravity but couldn't generate Earth normal, it was closer to Martian gravity which made moving around a cautious affair but overall much better than the zero gravity of other vessels which lacked the rotating simulated gravity sections in Earth force. She and Morton stopped by a computer display as a three dimensional image of the new arrivals appeared.

"Wow." Morton gasped. "Look at the size of that thing!"

The display showed a tri-winged design that didn't quite follow any pattern Ivanova could discern, it had Minbari elements to it, Human elements, even a hint of Vorlon looking at some of the protrusions near the bow. To her eyes it looked like a war machine, a lean killer of the space ways spoiling for a good fight.

"Guess we're not the baddest ship in orbit anymore." She sighed.

"Captain, we have a signal." Ensign Patel reported from the communication post. "President Sheridan is aboard one of those ships, he's talking to fleet command."

"Sheridan?" Morton raised an eyebrow. "Thank God, I was worried we'd have to fight them."

"That's the John Sheridan I know," Ivanova half chuckled. "Always makes a good entrance."

"Do you think he wanted to test those new ships then? That's the exercise?" Morton half asked and half stated. "Where the hell did he get those from anyway?"

He didn't get to answer, two dozen warnings and caution alarms flared at once across the large bridge area, drawing both them back to the centre.

"We've got a major incursion," Lieutenant Rossdale barked from the weapons stations. "Jump points opening in Lunar orbit."

"What type of ships?" she snapped.

"Part of the exercise?" wondered Morton.

"I don't think this is an exercise." Ivanova said slowly, eyes fixed on the tactical display rapidly filling with red dots.

"Confirmed." Said Patel. "This is for real, battle plans feeding through from fleet command."

"Transfer data to tactical, sound battle stations." Ivanova ran off orders. "Do we have ship I.D's?"

"Best guess would be Drakh vessels, thousand plus, and something I've never seen before." Rossdale replied.

"What do you mean?" Ivanova settled in her chair, Morton taking up his station to her left. "Patch through a visual."

For a moment the screen remained black and it took Ivanova a minute to register what she was seeing. The blackness was shifting and moving, slowly passing the moon. It wasn't a mistake and it made her blood run cold at the memory, she had seen this before.

"Ah Hell."

"Alyt Shaleth! Look!"

From the command room of his Warcruiser the Minbari officer snapped his head around at the warning. Like most of the other fleet members he had been studying the newly arrived warships recognizing some standard Minbari technology fused into their hulls. The strange hybrids had distracted him from thoughts about why the ISA wanted him here, thoughts which were quickly answered when he looked up.

"Valens name!" he exclaimed in awe. The fleet of Drakh ships alone would have given him a moment of pause but it was the terrifying black mass behind them which really caught his breath. "It cannot be!"

"Our sensors confirm it sir." His second, Tuvan, answered. "A Shadow Planet killer."

"But the Shadows are gone, driven from our galaxy in defeat."

"It seems they did not take everything with them." Tuvan suggested. "President Sheridan is arraying our forces for battle."

The Shai Alyt nodded. "It is somehow fate that he leads our fleets once more in battle against the darkness. Order our ships into combat formation, we focus on the enemy cruisers to our front."

"The heaviest ships are taking the point of the fleet." Tuvan said. "Sheridan is looking for us to open up a path."

"Then we will not disappoint." Shaleth nodded, he had fought at Coriana 6 with Sheridan and he'd seen these planet killers in action, he would not allow it to strike one of the founder worlds of this great new Interstellar Alliance. "Full attack."

"Primary batteries charged and ready." Rossdale announced. "Missiles armed and ready to fire."

"Very well," Ivanova said formally. "At this time I am authorizing use of strategic nuclear weapons. Take off the safeties and make ready to fire."

The fleet had begun deploying in a tight cone shaped formation designed like a three dimensional wedge to stab through the wall of Drakh ships preceding the Death Cloud. The point of the cone had the best ships in the assembled fleets, Earths _Warlocks_ and the Minbari _Sharlin_ warcruisers, along with Sheridans new prototype warships. Supporting them were the _Omega_ class ships flaring back on all sides of the heavy hitters covering their flanks and adding their own strength to the assault, and within the cone were the older Earth and League ships acting as reserves. Sheridan had also deployed the _Whitestars_ and Vree saucers as a fast moving strike force designed to rapidly move across the battlezone and offer their firepower to weakening parts of the front.

The whole thing had taken Earth totally by surprise, and while a powerful force was seconds away from engaging a sizeable number of ships just weren't ready for battle, they were either re-supplying in orbit or had barely a third of their crews on board, the rest enjoying shore leave on the planet below. The massive defence platforms began their charging process and the battlestations launched fighters and readied their own Particle cannons, but the whole thing could have been a total disaster, one which would finish Earth as a habitable planet. They were unprepared for war, and Earthforce was sending ships into battle that were not fit to fight, something which hadn't happened for nearly twenty years, not since the Battle of the Line.

The Battle of the Line. It was an event engraved in humanities consciousness as deep as anything in history, it had been a defining moment for all of human civilization, the moment when it had all nearly ended. Since that day the entire defence strategy of Earth had revolved around making sure it never happened again, that humanity would not face that possibility and if an enemy did reach Earth it would be met with all deliberate force. The GOD network had been the most visible response to that threat, but also the fleet elements of Earthforce had trained again and again for this possibility, re-fighting the line with newer technologies and ships so that if the unthinkable happened then Earth had a chance to live.

Now the unthinkable had happened, a massive force of advanced weapons was at the door and beating it down, Earths defences would be put to the ultimate test and despite the surprise they swung professionally into action. The fleet had assumed one of its standard formations, something every Captain could do in his or her sleep. The waypoints and ranges in near Earth space were already locked into the ships firing systems, the territory as familiar to each of them as the back of their hands. They were on their home ground and they knew what that meant, nobody was running from this battle.

"We're in range." Rossdale announced.

"Launch missiles." Commanded Ivanova. "Ripple fire all tubes, get them out of the silos so we don't have to worry about them, then standby particle cannons."

The _EAS Titans_ fired the first shots of the battle, its missiles being pushed out of their tubes by a quick magnetic surge before their engines engaged and flung the nuclear warheads at the incoming fleet. Earth force was past the stage of worrying about spaceborne weapons of mass destruction and with the new ISA the main galactic authority had been negotiating an amendment to the treaty of Omelos banning Weapons of Planetary destruction. While still technically in force Earth had made sure its frontline ships were equipped with the best weapons in the arsenal, including Nuclear weapons. Those missiles flashed into brief lives as they blasted the first group of Drakh vessels, The _Titans_ sisters following suit. Cruisers died to direct hits and raiders were blasted to scrap by the nuclear fire, but more ships raced through undaunted and closed further into range.

"Fighter squadrons formed up Captain." Morton relayed.

"Deploy them aggressively," Ivanova nodded to her XO, "its more important to take out enemy ships than to cover us, our defence grid can handle itself, tell them to hit any targets of opportunity and watch Sheridan's command."

The Thunderbolt fighters acknowledged and broke off forming into a loose strike formation. Time was critical in the battle and the Earth defence fleet had to throw everything it had into the fight with the aim of causing maximum losses to the enemy before they hit the defence grid, even at the price of protecting their own ships. The Minbari war had shown that caution usually meant losing your fleet, while aggression also tended to cost you your fleet but at least you could make the enemy bleed for it. It was a tactic as desperate as any humans had executed before and didn't help with their chances of survival, but if it saved Earth it was worth it.

A pair of Drakh cruisers fired on the _Titans_, their energy weapons thumping on the armoured hull. The ship was knocked a few degrees off course, an error that was rapidly corrected, but overall was largely unaffected, the heavy hull armour taking the hits without failing.

"Return fire!" Ivanova yelled over the ringing in her ears left by the hits. "Forward guns, engage at will!"

The lights dimmed slightly as power surged to the Particle cannons, the hungry weapons drawing energy from across the ship to reach critical firing charge before unleashing two spears of energy bound heavy particles. The red hued beams punched through the first cruiser with ease, burning clean through and winging the ship behind it as the primary target was consumed by the massive firepower. The GOD cannons were designed as one shot kill systems, and this was their first real test, a test they seemed to be acing.

"Target destroyed, but more inbound." Commander Morton kept up his commentary. "Attack ships sweeping around and more cruisers ahead."

"Keep firing, we do not let them break through our formation!" Ivanova pounded her fists. "This isn't going to happen on my watch, I want them dead!"

The _Titans_ was hit again, this time its turreted guns swung around and sliced four raiders out of the sky, the remaining ships broke away and blundered into a fearsome shower of antimatter bolts from a Vree escort. As the fast moving Drakh raiders reached the allied lines the vastly superior _Whitestars_ were ready to meet them, drawing them away and keeping them from massing their fire on the bigger warships of the main force. A dogfight developed with the allied fighters helping out as they could, weaving between the Destroyers and cruisers as they fired on the Drakh fleet.

The railguns on the _Titans_ burst through one of the flowing Drakh ships, its crystalline armour terribly vulnerable to the solid shot and fracturing with each impact. Pulse and laser fire from the vessels multiple turrets maintained a heavy barrage on the approaching lines while the twin Particle cannons fired as quickly as they could charge, clearing the path before them.

The _EAS Mage_ began to slow, its engines suffering repeated hits by the Drakh forces causing it to lose thrust. It fired defiantly, cutting down an enemy cruiser but it was essentially out of the battle, just an obstacle which would be overcome later should the Drakh win. Of the eleven _Warlock_ class destroyers that had made it back for the battle, eight had been fully operational with the number now reduced to seven. The other ships had been incomplete and only partially armed, and so they like the _Mage_ would form the final part of the defence expected to use any tactic to stop the Drakh, including ramming and jump engine overloads.

Ivanova felt the ship take two more hits, the last one causing secondary explosions somewhere. They were taking losses and hadn't even reached the main threat yet, the great death cloud billowing before them. She gritted her teeth and set her resolve, she would not lose this fight.

Shaleths cruiser elegantly angled its course to pass the wreck of one of its sisters, the blue form ragged and burning red hot after repeated strikes from Drakh warships, air and fuel feeding the flames that died quickly in vacuum, almost as quick as the ships crew. He held his thoughts, looking beyond the wreck to the mass of Drakh ships ahead and the great enemies most terrifying weapon. Space was littered with dead ships and the constant flashes of brief fires sent more friends and enemies into the next generation, it was not a truly sad moment for his beliefs told him they would return to life once more, but if the cloud reached Earth a whole planets worth of souls would be racing into the afterlife, a notion which awed and terrified him. Minbar was a part of this galaxy now, as a founder of the Interstellar Alliance and its most powerful member it was expected that the Minbari would take a lead in matters including the defence of other members. Sheridan lead, Delenn ever at his side tempering his decisions with wisdom and Minbari ideals, it was a perfectly measured government and one to which the Minbari people had enthusiastically embraced, and today was the first test of their resolve sending their people to die for a former enemy.

Two _Whitestars_ raced past, their crews the first symbols of the unity between Humans and Minbari, and with them followed a squadron of ageing Starfuries which looked like they had been in service since the last time an alien force had hit Earth, a force had had been part of. But that was the past, right now the present demanded his attention.

"Sustained fire." He commanded. "The Drakh are enemies to us all, destroy them."

The green of Minbari neutron weapons joined the red and orange weapons fire of Earth force, concentrating their considerable fire power on the very centre of the Drakh block formation directly ahead of the fleet. The ships secondary weapons swatted raiders from the sky as an afterthought, two Drakh heavy warships falling to Shaleths attack in a few moments.

A sudden increase in the Drakh losses drew his attention, from his command deck he had a panoramic view of Sheridans two new vessels opening fire in support of the vanguard units, their bow guns equal to his own primary weapons. They pierced through Drakh armour in seconds tearing apart the inner workings of the formidable enemy ships and leaving them bent and burning wrecks. He admired the skill and power of their attack, watching them part the Drakh lines and open gaps for the lesser Earth ships to exploit and widen. Sheridan kept his ships mobile, predicting where the Drakh would try and counter attack and always making sure at least one of his new warships was ready to meet them. The humans were fighting well, he even had to admit the League were performing far better than expected though only the most modern ships seemed to be making a difference. It was a true allied effort, though the Humans provided most of the forces as was appropriate.

Two further warcruisers had arrived since the battle started, Shaleth assigned them to take the place of destroyed ships in his formation and noted with satisfaction they immediately engaged and proved their worth, destroying more Drakh ships. The fleet was almost in place, a few more minutes and they'd be upon the cloud itself, and from there it was in Valens hands.


	4. Chapter 2 A Matter of Conscience

**Chapter 2: A matter of Conscience**.

Space warped and blurred past him in a multitude of blue and white not unlike a trip through the stargate tumbling end over end or so it felt. Unlike a stargate trip instead of the bone chilling cold running through him Colonel Caldwell felt a searing heat pass through him, as if Daedalus had parked itself right next to a sun. During stargate travel you had no sense or your surroundings, no sensation in your body, just the faint hint of stars flying by at unheard of speeds. Colonel Caldwell had once asked LtCol. Carter about it after one such trip through the stargate after a lengthy ten minute explanation about dematerialization and other things that left him more confused than before he asked the question, Colonel Caldwell decided then and there to never EVER let a scientist ramble if he could help it. For reasons unknown to him all this and more passed through his mind as it tried to find something to relate this experience with he came up empty, Then just as quickly as it began it was over. Utter silence greeted Col. Caldwell as reality set in, for the longest moment the only sounds he could hear were his ragged breathing and the beating of his heart. Then realizing he needed to get a grip on the situation his instincts kicked in.

"What the Hell was that?" Caldwell asked a bit shaken as he slowly released the death grip around the armrests of his chair. Realizing his crew was a bit slow in recovering from their ordeal he shouted to get his crew back to the here and now.  
"Status Report?" Like a jolt lighting it had the desired effect the crew came to their senses and focused their energies with renewed vigor to their stations. After several moments reports started coming in.

"Scope is clear no enemy contacts." Lt. Miguel responded after double checking his display. "I'm barely able to read the object, its power levels are dropping rapidly, within a few moments I won't be able to read it with our Radar or Lidar. Then after double checking his display again "sir weapons are fully operational." Lt. Miguel reported.

"Helm control and Navigation appear unaffected Colonel." Major Foster reported." I'm receiving status reports from all decks, no damage and no casualties reported.

"_Colonel this is Novak in engineering thrusters and hyperdrive are fully operational_." Novak reported over the loudspeaker.

"Very well doctor, do you and Hermiod have any idea of what just happened?" Col. Caldwell asked.

"_Hermiod is still pouring over the data gathered from the Asgard sensor pallets_." Novak reported. "_He says it will take him some time to fully analyze it and formulate any theories as to what might have happened_."

"Get it done quickly doctor I want answers, Caldwell out." he ordered killing the mike. Then shifting his attention to Major Foster "Foster get me Stargate Command." Col.Caldwell orded.

"Sir we'll have to clear the asteroid belt." Major Foster countered.

"Very well Major plots a course take us out of the asteroid field best possible speed." Caldwell ordered.

"Yes sir." was her terse reply.

In space Daedalus's engines flared to life as she shot forward heading for the nearest opening in the Asteroid field after about four minutes of dodging asteroids Daedalus cleared the asteroid belt.

"We've cleared the asteroid belt." Major Foster reported. "Contacting Stargate Command." after several moments of trying to contact Stargate Command she switched to one of the frequencies used by Nellis Air force base. When that failed she attempted to Raise AFSATCOM which also failed Finally she tried her last option at Vandenberg which also failed. Failing to raise a single station on Earth she reported the bad news.

"Sir I'm not getting any response from the SGC. Nor am I getting anything from Space Command or Vandenberg sir." Foster reported.

"Nothing?" Caldwell asked.

"No beacon signals and no acknowledgment of our hails sir." Major Foster reported. 'I am however reading abnormally large concentrations of tachyons surges in system."

""Tachyons?" Colonel Caldwell asked.

"Particles that travel faster than light sir." Major Foster said.

"I'm aware of that Major." Col. Caldwell said. "But how are they abnormally high?" the Colonel asked.

"I don't know sir." Foster responded.

"_Colonel I may have an answer for that_." Novak responded over the loudspeaker.

**Engineering.**

In Engineering Novak had been monitoring the abnormally large concentrations of tachyon particles shortly after she reported the ships status to the bridge. Ever the scientist she had initially been very excited by what she thought was a naturally occurring phenomenon, though something about it seemed vaguely familiar. After serval moments of study she began to notice patterns in the tachyon surges, activating a waterfall display she tried to isolate the various surges and was startled by what she found. Imbedded within each tachyon surge were radio signals, highly complex radio signals, next she tried to tally the number of tachyon surges to begin cataloguing them only to find the number ran into the hundreds.

"This is amazing!" Novak said excitedly to herself. Turning her attention to Hermiod she asked "Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

"I have not." Hermiod responded. "However the Tachyon surges are artificial in nature. They are being used to boost encrypted radio signals faster than light."

"Any idea where they're coming from?" Novak asked resuming her study of the various tachyon frequencies on her display.

"They appear to be originating near the vicinity of Earth." Hermiod answered.

It was then that Novak remembered what had seemed so familiar to her earlier, just before she had been recruited by the SGC she had read a paper published by Doctor Svetlana Markov. Doctor Markov believed that it was possible to boost radio signals by piggybacking them onto tachyon particles. Unfortunately her work never got passed anything more than abstract theory. If it hadn't been for the subspace radio's the Asgard provided to the SGC Its quite possible her work would have generated more interest into a new field of communication, but sadly the Russian Government didn't have the resources to continue research into that particular field.

Tapping into net that linked her to the bridge she had caught Fosters explanation of Tachyons and the Colonels awkward response.

"Colonel I may have an answer for that." Novak responded.

"_Go ahead doctor_." Col. Caldwell announced through her earpiece.

"Colonel, Hermiod and I have been monitoring the tachyon surges and we believe they are being used to boost encrypted radio transmissions to FTL speeds." She informed him. "And Colonel the transmissions are emanating from the vicinity of Earth." She added.

"_No one on Earth has this kind of technology doctor_." Col. Caldwell noted.

"I'm aware of that sir." Dr. Novak quickly replied.

"_Can you break the encryption_?" Caldwell asked.

"The coding is quite crude; cracking it will not be a problem." Hermiod responded from his station.

"Colonel Hermiod and I think we can break the code but it'll take a few minutes."

"_Do what you can doctor, Caldwell out_." The Colonel Said cutting the Mike.

"I absolutely hate it when they do that!" Novak said to herself before turning her attention to Hermiod. "So any bright ideas on how to break this code?" Novak asked with a smile on her face.

"I have been cycling through the Tachyon code since you first brought it to my attention." Hemiod admitted. "I have nearly broken it."

Hermiod's hands moved the various stones and crystals from one section of his console to another. "The Code is broken. " He finally announced after several seconds.

"You know you and me need to have a little talk about teamwork." A very annoyed Novak said.

**Bridge.**

"_Colonel the Code is broken_." Novak reported over the loudspeaker.

"Thank you doctor, and well done." Caldwell praised. "Keep an open channel to the Bridge, and monitor all sensor information as it comes in." Caldwell ordered.

"_Yes Colonel_." Novak reported.

Ok Foster lets hear it." Caldwell said to his XO.

"Yes sir." She responded. Her hands moved across her console as she matched the radio frequency and latched onto the net." Any second sir." She reported.

zzzz…I have a target lock!...zzzzz Alph……zzzzzzzzz….Alpha 4 break away, break away!...Distance to Target!...zzzzzz..Hull firing! White Star 13 break and engage rear targets, get them off the Warlocks!...zzzz… We just lost the Hecate! She's drifting! Protect the Victory and the Excalibur they're the only ones who can stop em. Nemesis and Juno are gone, Nimrod and Heracles take their place in formation!...zzz where the Hell's our support! Were being swept aside! They'll be able to position the Planet Killer once that's done!

"Holly shit! Did I just hear the words planet killer! Lt. Miguel barked out.

He like everyone on the Bridge had been listing in with rapt attention hoping to gain some insight from the monitored radio transmissions before deciding a course of action. But the words "Planet Killer" had sent a feeling of utter dread through the entire crew.

"My God, if it's true…" Foster whispered not knowing she'd spoken aloud."

"Hermiod, Novak are you monitoring?"

"_Yes Colonel we are_." Novak responded.

Caldwell could just make out a hint of a tremor in her voice apparently what she heard had deeply affected her, along with a good portion of the crew by the looks of it.

"What do you make of this?" the Colonel asked.

"_I am reading several hundred ships within the Vicinity of Earth exchanging weapons fire, and one object I can not identify. It is however large enough to encompass a planet_." Hermiod reported.

"It may very well be the Planet killer we heard about." Foster reasoned.

"_One more thing Colonel_." Hermiod said to get the Colonels attention.

"Go ahead Hermiod." Caldwell responded.

"_I have done a sensor sweep of the system and have determined that none of the planet are in their proper orbit_." Hermiod began.

_Oh god please don't go where I think your going with this_, Caldwell thought to himself.

"_Based on your plants rate of cylcle around its sun as well as those of the other plantets in the system I have determined that we are not at our correct space time coordinates_." Hermiod reported matter of factly.

"When are we then?" Caldwell asked trying to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut.

"_With the way you humans measure time, approximately 262 Earth Standard years_." Hermiod reported.

"Time Travel?" Lt. Miguel blurted out.

"It would appear so." Major Foster answered.

"Speculation can wait till later." Caldwell snapped as much to get them focused on their duties as to calm his racing heart, so far it wasn't working.

"Hermiod what's the Status of that planet killer?" Col. Caldwell asked.

"_It is drawing closer to Earth; I speculate it will be able to hit the planet within a few minutes_." Hermiod reported.

Colonel Caldwell took in everything within a matter of moments. Earth was in danger of being destroyed and her fleet was taking a pounding and would soon be swept aside. Though the Colonel had a choice whether or not to intervene His conscience only allowed him one alternative.

"Weps Arm all rail guns! Load tubes 1-4 with mark 8 tacticals 5-10 with Mark 7s. 8 – 16 with standard anti-ship ordinance. Caldwell barked coming to life.

"Yes sir!" was Lt. Miguel's enthusiastic reply.

"Raise Shields to Maximum, All hands man battle stations!" Caldwell calmly stated over the ships loudspeaker for all to hear.

The crew of the Daedalus having heard much of the Radio chatter intercepted from the Battle over Earth had taken it upon themselves to head towards their battle stations thinking (correctly) they would soon be needed. Once the Call to battle stations rang out over the ships loudspeaker Caldwell found to his delight the crew already manning it.

"Foster plot a small hyperspace jump between us and the Planet Killer."

"Course plotted waiting on your orders sir." she responded immeadiately.

"Take us into the Fight."


	5. Chapter 2 Continued

The _Excalibur_ had moved to the very front of the fleet replacing the heavily damaged _Sorceress_ and supporting Ivanova's right side. The _Titans_ had taken damage and one of its Particle cannons and overloaded and suffered a meltdown due to over use, but overall the ship was still fighting and Ivanova wasn't going to surrender her place at the head of the attack. A pair of _Omega's_ sent laser beams streaming past a few hundred metres beside her adding their power to the attack. The wedge formation had worked and although losses in the leading elements were heavy they had managed to deliver Sheridans new battleships into the heart of the enemy defences. The _Warlocks_ had received the most attention during the attack, the Drakh clearly recognizing their abilities and directing as much force as they could against them, forces which would have been better used against the _Victory_ and _Excalibur._ With the _Sorceress_ falling back it left just the _Titans_ and the _Hecate_ operational and fighting, with Minbari cruisers staying close by and the rest of the Earth units just behind.

"Captain, General Denisov is sending new orders." Commander Morton checked his earpiece. "We are to break formation and provide cover for the two prototype destroyers."

"Confirm those orders." She replied, it was standard procedure to make sure combat orders came from an authentic source.

"Subchannel I.D confirmed." Lieutenant Patel spoke from the main comms station.

"Acknowledge, Helm move us in behind _Excalibur_ and let the _Hecate_ watch the _Victory_."

Ivanova's decision was sound, the _Excalibur_ was the closest ship to her, but she knew that if she analysed the decision she would find that she was deploying her ship based on her desire to watch her old Captains back. Captain Krauss of the _Hecate_ was a good officer but frankly the only person Ivanova trusted to watch Sheridan's back was herself, and as the _Excalibur _pulled away she made damn sure she was right behind it.

The head of the fleet had punched through to the planet killer and now crossed inside the massive structure, firing on all sides as the Drakh ships closed the range and intensified the attack desperate to stop them driving further forward.

"Drakh ships on all sides Captain!" Rossdale yelled from the weapons station.

"Target anything heading for the _Excalibur _as a priority!" Ivanova stated. "Don't let them damage the flagship."

Three Thunderbolts were destroyed by a sweeping beam from a Drakh raider, a second later that same ship was cut down by a _Whitestar_. Inside the Deathcloud the combat ranges decreased dramatically with Drakh ships engaging at very short ranges. The _Titans_ interceptor grid was firing constantly, knocking down incoming pulse fire and enemy ships that got too close. Its main guns continued engaging bigger threats, a strike from four of its turrets converging on a Cruiser moving on the _Excalibur_ while its remaining particle cannon claimed another victim.

The two advanced warships were fighting furiously, their weapons in near constant use and a long trail of broken ships marking their line of advance. Earthforce had lost over a hundred destroyers so far and countless fighters, with allied forces taking equally heavy losses. The Drakh were a formidable opponent, while not quite as powerful as the Minbari they were far more advanced than humanity and it was only through skilled tactics and unwavering determination that the older Earth warships were still fighting, even the newer ships had taken a beating but continued to advance. If anything Drakh losses were even more staggering, the sudden concentration of force had smashed their battle line and now threatened their most valuable possession, their old masters weapon of ultimate terror. They redoubled their efforts, driving the older Earth Destroyers back and leaving the prototypes dangerously exposed and all but alone.

"We're losing our escorts!" Morton warned as an _Omega_ exploded spectacularly, its reactor feeding the forward guns even as it went into melt down.

Ivanova checked the displays, they were only covered by fighters and a pair of _Whitestars_ now and those craft were being heavily engaged. The nearest heavy warships were a trio of Minbari warcruiser and a Destroyer group battling forward but making little ground against increased Drakh presence. She uttered a soft curse, they were going to be in serious trouble.

"Four enemy cruisers locking on!" Rossdale shouted across. "Sixty degrees off the port bow!"

"All batteries respond, concentrate interceptors!" Ivanova ordered, the odds did not look healthy. The point defence guns fired, as did the gatling interceptors on the nearby _Excalibur_, together they formed a dense enough screen to force the smaller ships to break away or risk destruction, but the four cruisers pressed through the fire with superficial damage.

"Brace for impact!"

The crew obeyed their Captain and took hold of the chairs and consoles, tightening seat belts and tautening their muscles. The tactical displays showed the enemy ships less than a hundred miles away, the _Titans_ guns turning rapidly to engage and a flight of Thunderbolts moving in with anti ship missiles, but none of it was going to be quick enough to prevent them firing first.

A pair of blue beams lanced into side of the warship, punching it sideways and flinging any unfastened material into the left hand side wall. The _Excalibur_ also took two hits, though its more advanced armour was better able to withstand the impact. In return Sheridans ship sliced though one of the cruisers with its turreted guns, the green beams carving it up with no apparent difficulty.

Ivanova's _Warlock_ also returned fire, rail gun rounds smashing through one of the attacking cruisers while the turreted dual purpose cannons fired on a second, a stuttering fire of pulse cannon blasts followed by a two second laser burst, followed again by pulses, a steady pattern designed to slice through armour and then blast open the damaged sections.

The Drakh still came on, suffering heavy damage but not retreating. A lance of blue energy caught the _Titans_ on the join between its advanced armour and its more conventional materials, boring through and triggering an explosion in one of the fuel stores for the ships fighters. The fires engulfed the main hanger bay, requiring the forward doors to be opened and the atmosphere to be vented, extinguishing the fire.

One of the Drakh ships finally succumbed, a final volley of pulse fire ripping away its forward section. The _Excalibur_ finished off a second while the third found itself entering the firing arc for Ivanova's particle cannon, and with great satisfaction she ordered it destroyed.

"Damage?" she asked sharply.

"Hangar deck heavily damaged and venting." Morton stated. "Heavy buckling across the hull, and it looks like our last particle cannon is offline."

With a harsh snarl Ivanova noted the weapon had overloaded, installing such powerful weapons on a mobile platform had been expected to be problematic, the _Warlock_ class didn't have the dedicated power reserves and cooling systems of the GOD satellites, there just wasn't enough space and the miniaturized systems were still experimental, and it would appear flawed.

"Divert power to secondary weapons." She glanced at the tactical display, it seemed there was a sea of enemies closing on them and their reinforcements were still bogged down trying to fight through to them, perhaps a dozen _Omegas_ had broken through and were heavily engaged behind them. Starfuries and a few Minbari fighters were keeping Drakh raiders from striking the two prototype destroyers, but they were still badly outnumbered if not out fought.

More Drakh attack ships raced by strafing the _Titans._ One fell to the defence grid but not before stripping away one of the gun turrets. The remaining weapons maintained a continuous fire, tearing down a Cruiser but not halting the swelling tide. They didn't have enough firepower to break through the enemy lines to damage their target, a control centre for the entire Death cloud.

"More cruisers on our six!" Morton shouted. "Their moving in on the _Excalibur."_

"You know what to do." Ivanova ordered, the _Excalibur_ was their best chance of winning, it had to survive. Sheridan had to survive.

The _Titans_ altered course, swinging around to broadside the incoming Drakh ships with its maximum firepower and block their attack on Sheridans vessel. The _Hecate_ followed suit, streams of flame gushing from its decks it was in just as bad a condition as the _Titans_ but at least had one functional particle cannon. It turned fully around to target the Drakh forces with its primary weapon, energy mounting in its muzzle.

Once more the two _Warlocks_ fired, and once more Drakh ships were shredded by the attacks but didn't stop. Cruisers and raiders pressed forward firing on the two destroyers and punching holes through them both. The _Hecate_ fired its particle cannon, destroying two cruisers which were moving too close to each other while its pulse cannons filled space with salvoes of high energy.

"Drakh ships accelerating, Captain they're heading right for us!" Rossdale warned.

"Evasive action!" Ivanova yelled in horror. "Continue firing, brace yourselves!"

The Drakh ships held their collision course, both _Warlocks_ finished off another cruiser each before they got too close, the _Hecate's_ Particle cannon recharging just a few seconds too slowly. A suicidal Drakh cruiser ploughed into the heavy destroyer crumpling its forward armour and sending twisted debris slamming through the insides of the Earth ship. The _Titans_ meanwhile dropped down relative to the Drakh, its cannons pounding the Drakh ship as it approached. Ivanova breathed heavily as she watched the distance on the sensor readings cycling down, great chunks were being carved from the incoming ship but it wasn't slowing down.

"Three hundred kilometres." Morton reported. "Two hundred."

She felt totally helpless, for all her experience in battle, for all the times she had trained on this ship and honed its crew, for all those years in Earthforce none of it counted for much right now, the only things that mattered were how fast the guns could fire without melting and how quickly the engines could get them out of the way.

"One hundred kilometres," her XO kept reading, clouds of atmosphere and debris were falling away from the cruiser under the strikes. "Fifty, ten!" The cruisers forward hull ignited as a plasma pulse detonated its forward weapons capacitor, tearing a long rent in the enemy ships hull.

"Hold on!" shouted Ivanova.

A rail gun shot burst the Drakh cruisers reactor, enveloping it in a massive ball of destructive energy an instand before it would have hit the _Titans._ The explosion rocked the Earth force destroyer and showered it with debris from the Drakh ship like a shotgun blast, the inside of the ship rang like a bell in a hailstorm as countless impacts punched the side armour, some pierced it but thankfully most merely embedded themselves in the thick composites. When the energy dimmed the _Titans_ was still there, its flank blackened and looking like a pin cushion, leaking white plumes of atmosphere but still holding the ship together.

Ivanova settled back in her chair, the lights of the bridge dimmer as power was redirected to combat systems. She noticed the artificial gravity felt far lighter and saw in the corner of her eye Lieutenant Patel extinguishing a fire burning through one of the rearmost consoles. The guns were still firing, the ship was still moving and they weren't currently spaced, which was all she needed to know.

"Resume course!" she coughed a little on the acrid smoke, inhaling a lung full of the foul mixture of soot and burnt plastics. "keep us on the _Excalibur_!"

"Captain, we've lost the _Hecate_." Commander Morton said in a heavy voice. The video images showed the sister ship a mangled wreck, its entire forward half a twisted mess of human and Drakh parts and with only its engine block recognisable as a component of a _Warlock_. It fell back on fire and out of control, its final fate unreadable.

"We've got our orders." Ivanova said forcefully, she needed to keep the crew watching their jobs and not thinking about the loss of their comrades. "Look for targets, fire at will."

A swarm of Drakh raiders swept down on the two prototypes, aiming to strike them from the back. The aft guns on the two heavy warships fired, cutting down scores of the light ships but there were plenty more following. The _Titans_ added her guns, setting up a crossfire with the _Excaliburs_ aft batteries and emptying the sky of attackers. The _Victory_ was not so fortunate, with the _Titans_ heavily engaged and the _Hecate_ a burning wreck there was no one to help cover the ships back, and a few Drakh ships made it through the barrage to tear into the power linkages to the great ships main cannon, the barely noticeable jet of flame taking the allied fleets best weapon out of the battle, only the _Excalibur_ now possessed a weapon which could hurt the planet killer, and for Captain Anderson onboard the _Victory_ defeat seemed inevitable unless he took drastic action.

The battle was turning against the allies and they had just one chance left to try and secure victory, in a few minutes it would be too late. The opportunity would not come again, and with Drakh ships moving in once more on Sheridan and Anderson Captain Ivanova moved her wounded ship to block their path one final time, because if she failed to stop them there wouldn't be enough time for the prototypes to recover and the planet killer would claim another victim. She'd seen it happen before, she knew the fate that awaited a world lost in this weapons embrace and she would not allow it. There was no one left for her back home, no mother or father, no brother, no kindred soul to grow old with, nothing. Her life was empty of everything except her duty to Earth, and her love for her friends, and it was that more than anything which set her resolve. Let the Drakh come, she wouldn't give them another inch of Earth space while her heart still beat in her chess. The battered warship fired again from its blackened cannons, defiant even now, and the Drakh charged forward into their fire. The breaking point had been reached, all it needed was for one side to shatter first.

President Sheridan was growing more and more angry and frustrated, the way ahead of the _Excalibur_ was crammed with Drakh ships, too many for the two _Victory_ class warships to punch through alone and although the cloud was filling with Earth force ships they wouldn't be here in time.

"Sheridan, standard weapons fire isn't getting through." The gruff voice of Captain Anderson announced across the bridge speakers, his command was holding to their right trying to punch through along with the _Excalibur_.

"I know." Sheridan said brusquely, another Drakh cruiser fell to his guns but more arrived to take their place.

"If you fire your main gun it'll put you out of commission for one minute." Anderson said. "We'll cover you until you can navigate clear."

"At this range all we'll do is destroy some of those ships."

"Exactly, it'll clear the way so we can use our main gun. Just open the door Mr President, we'll take it from there."

Sheridan wasn't sure, but he was out of options. They rest of the fleets heavy ships were still coming up and the Drakh would be able to hold them back for as long as it took to deploy the planet killer and destroy Earth. It was his only choice.

"Standby to fire main gun."

"Mr President, we have a new contact arriving behind us, moving in very fast." The sensor officer spoke up.

"One of ours?" Sheridan frowned, he glanced at the readings and didn't recognize anything about it.

"It isn't Drakh, basic design could be one of ours, but its moving a lot faster than anything we should have."

"We can't worry about that now, target main gun and fire on my command, if its hostile the fleet can stop it."

_Excalibur_ angled its bow and began diverting power for a full strike, the _Victory_ shooting down a pair of Drakh ships trying to interfere with the process. The Vorlon based weapon would probably have the ability to destroy the planet killers control centre, but Sheridan would still have preferred to be closer. He hoped Anderson knew what the hell he was doing.

"Mr President, you need to hear this." One of his officers said hastily.

"Kind of in the middle of something here." Sheridan replied curtly.

"Its from the unknown ship, its hailing us sir, in English."

"English? Its one of ours?" Most ships from alien powers communicated through iterlac, a simplified artificial language. If it was speaking English then the crew had to be either humans of allies of humanity. He hoped. "Lets hear it."

"I say again, this is the Starship _Daedalus_ to fleet, come in."

"One of our names." Sheridan murmured before replying. "This is President John Sheridan, watch our firing arcs, we're about to engage the enemy with a new weapon."

"Confirmed Mr President, we're ready to deploy weapons of our own, we have some enhanced nukes and the means to deliver them rapidly to the enemy."

"Enhanced?" Sheridan wondered. "How enhanced?"

"Well over a gigaton," the voice replied. "We've been monitoring transmissions and scanning the battle, we know you're down to your last chance, we can make it count."

"Captain Anderson, did you hear that?" Sheridan asked.

"We heard, but Mr President we're down to a few minutes. Whatever you're going to do, do it now."

"President Sheridan," the commander of the new ship spoke solemnly. "We can do this, and we can do it quickly enough so that should we fail you'll still have time to try something else. Earth is our home, let us try and save her."

Sheridan sighed, his head was still too full of questions to truly trust this new arrival, but at this point there wasn't much they could do to make it worse. "Alright, take your ship in at an oblique angle, we'll make sure there are no ships in your path, after that you've got two minutes before we go to plan B. Think you can make it time?"

"Yes sir President Sheridan, this is what we're here for."

"Good luck to you and your crew, and to us all."

Colonel Caldwell closed his eyes for a second, inhaled deeply, and accepted this new mission. It was so far beyond anything he could have imagined just a few brief years ago he had to remind himself he wasn't lost in a dream, or perhaps a nightmare. He activated shipwide communications.

"This is Colonel Caldwell, I realise this has turned into a pretty weird day, this was supposed to be a shakedown cruise and instead we end up in the middle of some future war. But this is what we signed on for, this is what we all knew might happen one way or another. Earth is in danger and it is our sworn duty to go and defend our planet, whenever this time might be. This is our fight now, lets do what we all joined up for and keep our homes safe. That is all." He deactivated comms.

"Hanger bays are ready to launch Colonel." Major Foster made her report. "All units loaded up with Mark VII's"

"Bring them to ready status but do not launch yet, we wouldn't want to leave them out here." Despite the F-302's superb performance they still relied on chemical rocket engines which could not hope to match the acceleration of the much larger _Deadalus_ herself. "Weapons status?"

Lieutenant Miguel gathered a quick summary from his station. "All missiles armed and active, rail guns on ready status, all targeting systems live and tracking."

"Dr Novak, kindly keep a watch on the sensor reports, we're in totally unknown territory here so look for any hint of a threat, and make sure Hermiod knows its his little grey butt in the fire here too."

"Yes Colonel." She replied from her station deep within the ship.

"I heard that Colonel." The Asgard replied. "Now that we are in this predicament you can be assured of my skills."

"I feel safer already." Foster muttered.

"Understood." Caldwell replied formally. "You have an open channel to the bridge, keep me informed."

"Two contacts closing from either side." Reported Foster. "Friendlies."

Caldwell noted the two cruisers, each slightly larger than his ship and possessing a flowing and alien design. When he had examined the ships fighting here he had quickly been able to spot the human ships, their basic design was not entirely dissimilar to some of the concepts the SGC had developed before settling on the current starship designs, though in some respects they seemed rather simple for a future ship. However the ships beside them were like nothing he'd ever seen before.

"Starship _Daedalus_, this is _Whitestar sixteen_, we've been ordered to escort you on your attack run."

"Roger that _Whitestar sixteen_, we're beginning our run now." Caldwell turned to Foster. "Alright Major, get this show on the road."

The _Daedalus_ engines burned into life, pushing the ship forward rapidly. The escorting pair of _Whitestars_ had to strain to match its acceleration, and even then the SGC ship was using an economical amount of thrust. The Drakh forces were still concentrating on the two gleaming warships commanded by Sheridan and Anderson and on keeping the main allied force away from the control mechanisms of the Death cloud. While no large ships cared for three fast cruisers skirting the battle a group of smaller Drakh raiders noticed them and moved to intercept, the smaller Drakh ships still comparable in size to the _Daedalus_ herself.

"Enemy ships powering up and locking on." Major Foster reported.

"Hold your course, Weapons, lock rail guns and fire." Caldwell ordered, acutely aware that this was the first time his ship had fired in anger.

The small turrets swivelled quickly around and acquired their targets, at the same time the escorting _Whitestars_ opened fire with their bw guns, performing some quick roles to get a better firing angle. The rail guns engaged as the Drakh raced past, the high speed rounds were small but packed enough punch to open significant holes in the raiders, peppering the closest vessel and shredding the internal systems.

"Scratch one." Miguel called out.

"Nice work guns," Caldwell complimented. "We'll show the _Prometheus_ crew how it's really done." The recent exercise against the sister ship had driven in a few home truths, but it was good to see that his new ship and crew could handle themselves when it mattered.

"Colonel," Novak spoke through the speakers. "I think they noticed us, two cruisers closing on our position, really big ones sir."

"We'll cut them down to size, prepare to fire two Mark VII's, staggered spread."

The Drakh cruisers fired their bow cannons, the _Whitestars_ dodged and returned fire, while the _Daedalus_ held its course. The beam weapons impacted on the smaller ships shields, the Asgard designed systems absorbing the energy and dig it safely with just a moderate shudder affecting the ship behind the shield.

"Damage report?" Caldwell demanded.

"Negligible damage to the shields." The calm voice of Hermiod replied, unflappable as ever. "Their weapons are interesting, but inferior to Asgard technology."

According to Hermiod everything was inferior to Asgard technology. "Very well, continue monitoring."

"I have no where else to be." The voice replied a little sullenly.

Caldwell didn't have time to dwell on the Asgard crew members discomfort among humans, another volley of enemy fire splashed off the shields.

"We're in range." Miguel announced.

"Fire missiles!" the Colonel ordered. "Watch our distance to the blast Major."

The pair of Mark VII enhanced nukes burst up from the ships forward hull, passed the shield and blazed up towards the Drakh cruisers. Caldwell wasn't sure how effective they'd be, both sides were using very high powered energy weapons but hopefully they'd have enough of a kick to get those ships out of their path.

As the missiles arced round they were suddenly cut from the sky in a blue flash, the Drakh weapons having no trouble hitting the relatively slow moving weapons. Caldwell grimaced in disappointment, he had been worried that might happen.

"Engage with rail guns and prepare another two missiles, we'll fire at point blank range."

The _Daedalus_ adjusted course slightly to bring its secondary weapons into arc, the solid rounds penetrating the Drakh armour easily but causing limited damage against the massive vessels.

"We'll be passing by them in five seconds." Foster said, the ship shaking a little more as the shields were subjected to more attacks.

"Weapons, engage as we pass." Caldwell ordered, and moments after saying it Lieutenant Miguel activated the sequence throwing two more missiles at the Drakh. Amazingly the point defences managed to intercept these weapons too, but before the explosions even faded the _Daedalus_ was past them and accelerating away.

"This is _Whitestar sixteen_, we'll keep these cruisers busy, complete the mission."

It was a one sided battle, the Drakh ships were giants compared to the smaller attack ships, but Caldwell recognized a holding action when he saw one, things were becoming that desperate.

"We'll make it through, thanks for the help." Caldwell settled in his chair, a huge weight of responsibility on him alone now. "Alright, increase speed, but try not to over shoot the target."

The _Daedalus_ powered up its engines, easily out pacing the Drakh ships behind it. They had been waiting until Sheridan was in final position, and now as the _Excalibur _lined up Foster prepared their final run.

"That's a lot of ships ahead sir." She said quietly. "We can't avoid them all."

"Lets hope President Sheridan's faith in those ships isn't misplaced."

The ships sensors registered a sudden power loss from the _Excalibur_, then the energy readings spiked as energy was channelled to the ships bow and pushed forward in a massive stream of green and yellow light. Anything in front of the blast ceased to be, and targets close to its path were heavily damaged by secondary effects. It tore its way through the Drakh defenders but missed the Shadow control centre and its own integrated defence network.

"That's our road Major, take us forward."

Following Caldwells orders Major Foster increased engine power, her ship responding swiftly and closing on the black coloured bulge that was the focus of their mission. The powerful purple beams were still busy fending off the main allied fleet and intercepting incoming fire, it took a moment for them to recognize the _Daedalus_ as a threat and by then the ship was almost upon them.

"Decelerate to combat speed." The Colonel ordered. "Launch fighters, have them target the defence guns."

The ship slowed down extremely quickly, its Asgard based inertial dampeners making sure the crew didn't even register the shocking G forces they would have pulled if unprotected. The battlecruiser immediately opened fire with its railguns, turning itself slightly so the fighters would benefit from the ships bulk to screen their launching. The first of the defence guns swung around, its amorphous structure contorting like a bizarre deep sea mollusc before sprouting beams of purple energy, striking the shields with much greater power than the Drakh weapons.

"Damn, that didn't feel good." Caldwell held on to his chair as the shadow weapons battered the _Daedalus_

"Shields are holding!" Novak reported from engineering. "But its taking its toll, I wouldn't recommend we stay for long."

Another brace of impacts rocked the ship, at the same time its rail gun rounds pummelled the surface of the structure, doing only superficial damage.

"Squadron leaders ready." Foster relayed.

"Order them to begin attack runs, take out those guns and keep us moving."

The starship dove, avoiding the worst of another volley. Foster drove the ship hard pulling some tight turns which stressed the ships integrity and sent some groans of protest through the hull. The dampeners kept the crew alive, but they were best in linear acceleration and the asymmetrical thrust of the engines as the ship turned was putting stress on them, especially with Foster truly pushing the envelope.

As the _Daedalus_ manoeuvred and drew the defences fire the two squadrons of F-302's turned sharply and came in against their target. The controllers of the death cloud ignored them, not considering the small craft to be of much threat against the formidable armour of the control section. The squadron fired its weapons in a mass volley, a saturation strike of two missiles per fighter covered the surface of the structure with masses of fire and radiation. The Mark VII's were deliberately targeted on the twelve surface batteries, and even with their advanced construction the Naquadah enhanced weapons proved far too much for them to resist.

"Enemy guns destroyed." Novak reported happily. "They're defenceless."

"Reel in fighters as quick as you can." Caldwell ordered. "Stand by for maximum thrust and ready our battery of Mark VIII's."

"How many sir?" Miguel asked.

"All of them." Caldwell replied with a thin smile. "Its called a 'planet killer,' I don't want to take chances."

Miguel turned to his station, activating all six of the high yield weapons available on the ship. As he did so the fighters filed into the hangers unmolested, rapidly dropping down and being moved aside for the next planes coming in. Drakh ships were inbound, but they weren't going to make it in time.

"Fighters recovered." Foster said. "Engines at full readiness."

"Lieutenant Miguel, you may fire."

"yes sir." He turned the activation key and depressed the launch button. "Firing sequence initiated, missiles away."

With no defences remaining and heavy surface damage the control structure was in no condition to resist the tremendously powerful weapons launched by _Daedalus._ Foster didn't hang around, as soon as the tubes were empty she pushed the engines to full power and the ship raced away, arriving near the _Excalibur_ in mere seconds, even before the missiles impacted.

The multiple detonations were enormous, even at long range they obscured everything for miles around in a bright light and flash of energy.

"Can we get a reading on the control structure?" Caldwell asked briskly. "Did we destroy it?"

"Analysing." Hermiod replied, and for an interminably long time which Caldwell half believed was deliberate, the Asgard spoke again. "It is confirmed, the target is destroyed."

A few brief cheers and calls went around the ship, probably echoed across the fleet.

"However," Hermiod continued. "The destruction seems to have activated a mechanism in the structure, I'm not entirely certain but I believe it is about to engage in its primary purpose."

"What he means sir," Novak cut in, "Is that everything's about to blow up."

"The other ships have seen it too, Sheridan is ordering a rapid retreat." Foster stated.

"Who are we to argue with that, take us out of here."

Ivanova looked over at Morton. "Engine status?"

"Active, both Ion and gravitic."

"Then get us the hell outta here!" she exclaimed. "Head for that gap!"

The _Titans_ came about quickly, it was badly shot up but thankfully none of her primary systems were damaged. The powerful collection of engines burnt into life and began pushing the millions of tons of starship towards the perimeter of the cloud and safety. They had seen the destruction of the control room from a distance, and the ship that did it. Ivanova had never even heard of a ship that could go that fast, it seemed to use a series of completely unreadable technologies and powerful ECM prevented a detailed scan. Just from appearance she would have said it was some sort of Earth Alliance secret project, only humans built ships that plain and ugly, but it still raised more questions than answers. She looked at the sensor data one last time, then put her mind to the job at hand.

The deck was trembling as all available power went to providing thrust, there was no way to turn or adjust the course now, it was a headlong charge for freedom and any Drakh ship that got in their way would have a short sharp meeting with one of Earth forces biggest ships. The _Victory_ and _Excalibur_ were rushing up behind them, the advanced ships having far more thrust than a basic destroyer they rapidly caught up with the main body of the fleet. Starfuries and _Whitestars_ weaved between the bigger ships, the Minbari cruisers and lighter Vree ships were already clear and spreading out beyond the shrinking cloud, with the slower Earth cruisers behind.

"Can we get more from the engines?" she checked.

"We can try." Commander Morton replied. "We've got missiles everywhere!"

"That's why we need to be somewhere else." She emphasized. "Believe me, we really don't want to be inside one of these things when it goes active. Been there, done that."

The _Titans_ caught up with the _Omega_ wings, the last batch of destroyers racing for a rapidly closing gap in the clouds structure, the two advanced destroyers with them.

"Oh great." Ivanova cursed. "It would have to be closing wouldn't it? Couldn't just stop half way!"

"We're almost there," Morton said. "A few more seconds, engines are at maximum overload."

She gripped her chair, the tension building to unbearable levels. If they timed it wrong it wouldn't matter about the missiles, ploughing into a piece of planet killer would be enough to end the _Titans_ short career. She watched on the visual displays as a score of destroyers made it through, the last of the _Whitestars_ dodged past the struts and then she caught another glimpse of the small unknown ship darting past the comparatively huge Earth Force ship and clearing the planet killer.

"Here it comes!" Morton called, adrenalin hiking up the pitch in his voice.

The gap was barely a ships length wide, the _Victory_ made it through followed by two _Omega's_, then another flight of fighters, and then it was her turn. The _Titans _scraped past with scant metres to spare, followed by another lucky warship and finally the _Excalibur_ herself, forced to roll a little to squeeze through.

"We're clear, we actually made it!" Morton cheered.

"Course we did, never doubted it." Ivanova stood and straightened her jacket. "Report on the Death cloud?"

"Its missiles are detonating internally." Lieutenant Rossdale smiled widely. "Its destroying itself and a few hundred Drakh ships."

"Unlucky for them." Morton said without a hint of sympathy. "Wait, message from fleet command, there are still Drakh ships close to Earth."

"Party's not over yet." Ivanova returned quickly to her seat. "Range to target?"

"Nearest ship is well out of range, plotting intercept course." Morton said.

"Main pulse and laser batteries still operational." Rossdale said. "Missiles are expended and particle cannons offline, we have about a third of our rail gun rounds left."

"Good enough, take us in."

The ravaged warship adjusted course along with a significant number of other ships, but the quick rush to escape had left them out of position and with no formation and it took valuable seconds to get the homogenous mass on the move again. But once they were moving the Earth ships hit with a vengeance, slamming into Drakh vessels which had formed a screen for some of their other ships, Ivanova couldn't guess why but it didn't matter, the Drakh were between the fleet and the defence grid, it wasn't going to take long to finish them.

"Outstanding Ladies and Gentlemen, absolutely outstanding." Colonel Caldwell grinned, the praise very well deserved. For their first combat mission had been a stunning show, with no casualties and a rapid success the crew had performed magnificently and Caldwell was duly impressed. His normally professional and businesslike demeanour slipping for a moment as he felt pride in his crew and great relief that they had not failed. "This is one for the history books."

"If they ever let us tell anyone!" Major Foster chuckled. "How many times has the SGC saved the world and no one knows?"

"Now we did too, its quite a feeling." Miguel joined in.

"Tell Colonel Ronson to beat _that!_" Foster laughed. "Damn this'll make a fine report!"

"Alright people, lets settle down, look." Caldwell pointed at the sensor station data. "We still have hostiles in our airspace, that means we haven't finished yet. I want fighters in the sky and all weapons locking on within the next thirty seconds."

"Yes sir." Miguel went straight back to work aligning the targeting system.

"Bridge, this is Novak." A now familiar female voice announced. "There are a lot of Drakh ships in Earth orbit, satellite defences are taking them down but there are still lots of them out there."

"Then we head for Earth, best possible speed Major."

Foster laid in the coordinates and brought the ship around, the bright bleu globe filling the forward screens and the hearts of the crew.

"Wait a minute, the alien ships are doing something…" Novak exclaimed, the tension in her voice carrying in the electronic buzz of the speakers. "They're dropping something into the atmosphere!"

"Working to analyse." Hermiod said impassively, but Caldwell didn't need the Asgard to tell him this was very wrong.

"Major, get us moving now!"

The _Daedalus_ made the short sprint to Earth orbit and swept into the midst of a Drakh group, the F-302 interceptors roaring out of the hangers each still carrying two ship killing Mark VII's which hadn't been fired earlier. Before it had even decelerated a pair of missiles were launching from the ship, they punched through one of the surprised Drakh vessels emptying a black substance into the atmosphere and destroyed it before it could continue. Earths defence grid was swatting ships out of the sky at an alarming rate, the missile swarms and terrifically powerful particle cannons were doing their job, but simply not quick enough. Even with _Daedalus_ now engaging the unarmed tankers the damage had been done.

_Whitestars_ and fighters arrived to add their fire power, and then the first heavy units joined in, bearing scars of the attack on the Death cloud they caused the few remaining Drakh vessels to open jump points and flee. The battle was over.

"Enemy forces have retreated."

President Sheridan barely heard those words, he sat with a look of abject horror as a black morass settled over his blue and white home. He hadn't expected this, he had thought the Planet killer was the Drakh's only weapon and he had been wrong. They had thought victory was theirs, it had cost them and it had almost slipped through their fingers, but he thought they had won.

Groups of less heavily damaged ships were opening jump points and giving chase to the Drakh ships, eager to take some revenge for the cowardly attack, but Sheridan did not accompany them, both _Victory_ and _Excalibur_ had taken damage and needed repairs, especially _Victory_, but at least they had survived. He was faced now with two questions, firstly and most importantly was finding out exactly what had happened to Earth, how to fix it, and how to make sure the Drakh paid in blood. The second was the identity of the newly arrived vessel, it had destroyed the Planet killer control room and a number of Drakh ships thereby proving it was a friend and possessed a seemingly human crew.

"I need a channel to Earth central," Sheridan said quietly. "Try to find out what happened. Then I want to speak to the _Daedalus_, find out exactly who they are and where they stand."


	6. Chapter 3 Brave New Worlds

Chapter 3, Brave New Worlds

USAF _Daedalus_

"Colonel sir, these are Hermiods findings." Doctor Novak handed the print outs to Caldwell personally. The grim faced officer read the details from his command chair, Major Foster giving her a nod of greeting but not opening conversation. The ship was still technically at combat readiness and any chit chat was strictly forbidden. The bridge was dimly lit as to provide minimal glare on the banks of video displays and screens showing a myriad of information, though for Novak the most impressive and disturbing sight was Earth visible through the bow windows, a dark veil still covering it from the Drakh attack.

"A nanite plague?" Caldwell looked up from the paper.

"Yes sir, he's still going over the scanners to get something more specific, but its apparently extremely advanced in origin."

"Has he worked out…" Caldwell paused, trying to find the appropriate words for this situation. "…what effect it will have on the planet?"

Novak nodded heavily. "He says its fatal, that the entire population will contract it and eventually die from it." Of course Hermiod had been less sympathetic when delivering the news, she chose to believe it was because the Asgard had no understanding of human emotions, rather than guess he just didn't care about the planets fate.

"This is unbelievable." Caldwell said with a hardness in his voice. "We stop a damn planet killer, and then they pull this crap? Tell me some good news doctor."

"there is one thing sir, from what we can tell the plague has to adapt to human biology, it's a perfect killing machine but it wasn't precisely programmed, Hermiod guesses these aliens weren't smart enough to do it, it wasn't their tech. Its going to take about five years before the Plague becomes truly fatal, which gives them time to find a cure."

"You mean us?" Caldwell corrected. "We've already thrown our hat into the ring, I think the SGC would support any initiative aimed at assisting these people in finding a cure, especially if they happen to be future versions of our own civilization."

"I understand Colonel, but there are some concerns with maintaining the timeline which…"

"Doctor, the decision is made." Caldwell stated firmly. "Now, we've been invited over to their flagship, I'm going over and I want you with me. Major Foster, you have the bridge, and in case of trouble make sure Hermiod as the transporter ready to beam us up."

"Yes sir Colonel." Foster said. "You want to beam over?"

"No, we'll take a shuttle, no need to show all our cards just yet in case they aren't as friendly as I hope." The Colonel stood from his chair. "Bring these documents Doctor Novak, I think our hosts will be interested in seeing them."

The Colonel set of for the hangar bays, and with a slight shiver of worry Novak followed along, she'd wanted to meet new civilizations and while this wasn't exactly what she expected she had to admit it was very intriguing, and just maybe they could do some more good here.

_Excalibur_

The relatively small shuttle nosed its way through the magnetic fields keeping the massive ships atmosphere on the right side of the hull. Novak had appreciated the ship was huge from the data the sensors had recorded, but exactly how big it was hadn't really occurred to her until they got closer. They came to a halt and grounded in the well lit bay, numerous empty alcoves filled the bay presumably for the ships own fighter wing which was currently missing.

"Lets go see what these people are like." Caldwell mused. He ordered the pilot to stay put, then he and Novak headed for the exit door. They were met outside by two armed marines and an officer in a blue uniform, all clearly human.

"Colonel Caldwell of…" he paused, not wanting to give away his true origins just yet. "Of the _Daedalus._ This is Doctor Novak."

"Welcome aboard." The officer said curtly. "If you'll follow me the President is waiting."

They were escorted quickly to what looked like a tiny subway car. They got in and began their journey through the ship. Caldwell noted the validity of this vehicle, getting around _Daedalus_ could be hard work sometimes and it was a fraction the size of this battleship, a miniaturized transit system was by the far the best way to get around. It came to a stop and the group moved towards a more conventional looking elevator. After a second short journey and a quick walk down a corridor they arrived at a large room adjacent to the ships bridge, Caldwell having a quick glance as they passed and noting it wasn't all that dissimilar to his own ship.

"In here please." The officer gestured, and the two guests stepped into the meeting room occupied by a tall man with grey hair and a neat beard.

"Thank you Commander, you can leave us." He said with a clear American accent which gave Caldwell a moment of hope, it was the same voice as he heard on the communication grid and was apparently President Sheridan. The escort left, leaving Sheridan, Novak and Caldwell alone.

"Pull up a chair." Sheridan pointed to the self illuminating table in the centre of the room before doing so himself. "I can see this is going to be quite a talk, and I for one would rather be sat down."

Caldwell and Novak joined him, this was certainly turning out to be something.

"First of all how is your ship and crew?" Sheridan asked. "Did you take any casualties? Can we help in any way?"

"We took very light damage thank you Mr President." Caldwell said. "Nothing we can't handle."

"I'll guess we'll start then, do you recognize me?"

"I'm guessing you're President Sheridan, but before half an hour ago we'd never heard of you. We don't really understand ourselves how we came to be here but it looks like our timing was pretty good." The Colonel said. "My name is Steven Caldwell, I'm a Colonel in the United States Airforce attached to Stargate Command."

"United States?" Sheridan gasped. "There hasn't been a United States since the formation of the Alliance over a century ago."

"What Alliance?" Novak asked. "Sorry sir, My name is Lindsey Novak, also assigned to Stargate Command."

"The Earth Alliance of course," Sheridan frowned. "It took over from the individual nation states when we started heading into space."

"I see." Caldwell nodded, he had hoped for global unity after the true nature of Earth in the galaxy was disclosed to the public, but as a veteran soldier had doubted many nations would go along with it quietly. "Mr President, it is our belief that my ship was transported into the future by about two hundred and sixty years."

"You're from the past?" Sheridan frowned. "I don't understand, your ship seems far more advanced than anything from back then, hell its pretty damn impressive for now."

"Well, I'd guessed that with two and a half centuries head start you'd consider the _Daedalus_ a museum piece."

"As far as I knew Colonel the only space craft we had back then could barely reach orbit, there's nothing in the history books about a ship like yours." Sheridan stated. "And what exactly is Stargate Command?"

Caldwell took a moment to consider Sheridans position, it sounded like this man who was President of a united Earth, or perhaps even an alliance of alien worlds too, simply had never heard of the Stargate programme. If it was active he should know about it, if it was turned off centuries ago it would have been declassified, probably after human starships were officially created and met alien races, and so should be in the history books. Even more confusingly was why the basic systems of the _Daedalus_ had not been integrated into human ships at large even after all this time, during the battle he noticed some ships didn't have basic artificial gravity, something he took for granted on the _Daedalus._

"I think this is more complicated than it looks." The Colonel said.

"It must be the device." Novak said. "We thought it threw us forward in time, but it might also have dropped us in an alternate universe."

"What device?" Sheridan asked.

"We were on exercise in the solar system," Caldwell explained. "We fond an Ancient device, similar to a Stargate in the asteroid field. Now a Stargate Mr President provides near instant travel across vast distances, a number of our people wondered if as well as personnel sized gates the Ancients had built larger ones to move ships and fleets. We investigated the device and somehow activated it, ending up here."

"This isn't unique sir." Novak chipped in, "According to old mission files Doctor Jackson found an unknown device which transported him to an alternate universe, though it wasn't in the future as such."

"You guys are from an alternate universe?" Sheridan asked specifically. "Really?"

"We can't say for certain without examining some historical records." Novak added a note of caution. "But it seems to make sense."

"Well that makes a few more pieces of the puzzle fit together." Sheridan said. "So how did you get a ship like that in your time?"

"Most of it is based on alien technology we've reverse engineered with a lot of outside help." Caldwell shrugged. "We've been fighting to keep our world safe for nearly ten years against a variety of threats mainly a race called the Goa'uld."

"We've never heard of them." Sheridan shook his head. "It seems there are a few differences between our universes."

"Probably a lot more, considering all the random interactions that take place to shape nature and society." Novak began to enthuse, but stopped herself.

"Right now though there is a more pressing concern." Caldwell nudged Novak. "This is data we recovered on the Plague those aliens left in Earths atmosphere."

Sheridan took the offered documents and looked at them with a grimace. "A lot of this is confirmed by our scans, but how do you know its nanotech?"

"We have certain additional sensors on our ship." Novak said.

"Gifts from an advanced race we are friends with." Caldwell quickly added.

"Mind if I keep these reports?" Sheridan asked.

"Of course, and we can provide more as our scanners take samples to analyse." Caldwell stated. "And if we get some to facilities back home we might be able to provide more active help."

"Do you have a way to return home?"

"Possibly, there's another gate in the asteroid belt here…" Novak began.

"Wait a minute, you're saying there's one of those things right here and we never noticed?" Sheridan interrupted.

"Its naturally very stealthy," Caldwell admitted. "We'd have flown right by if not for our borrowed sensors."

"Well I guess you're free to come and go as you please." Sheridan shrugged. "I don't think we have anything fast enough to chase you anyway!"

"Maybe not Mr President, but my crew and I want to do our part here." Caldwell said formally.

"You already earned our thanks and trust Colonel." Sheridan replied. "Your actions today have proven that, I am not too proud to admit you can help us here, my only concern right now is saving Earth."

"I agree with you there Mr President. Even though we are from different places, we are also from the same home, if you see what I mean."

"In a way." Sheridan nodded.

"I think I can convince my people at Stargate Command to help you Mr President, we have access to a lot of advanced systems provided by our allies, perhaps between our two worlds we can find a common cure before time runs out."

"I'll take whatever help you are offering." Sheridan said simply. "We all thank you for helping us out back there, it could have gone better, but it sure could have been a hell of a lot worse. At least we have a chance now to save Earth."

"It's a Chance." Caldwell agreed. "This is all happening real fast, but we're with you."

"Thank you Colonel." Sheridan managed a smile. "Damn this has been a weird day."

Sheridan shook their hands and bid them goodbye, smiling as the two humans left the room and headed back for their shuttle. For a minute he was alone, turning the ideas over in his head before the door chimed again.

"Come in." he called, and the door swished open to reveal his old friend and security chief Michael Garibaldi. "You hear all that?"

"Yeah." The heavy set bald man nodded. "Pretty tall tale."

"You believe them?"

"Not as far as I can throw them." Garibaldi said bluntly. "If they'd have said they were from the future, maybe, but their story is just too unbelievable."

"They did happen to destroy that planet killer though, at least it shows they aren't working for the Drakh, or anyone who wants Earth destroyed."

"Doesn't mean they're friendly." Garibaldi cautioned. "Clarks hangers on and the Psicorps didn't want Earth destroyed, doesn't mean we're all on the same side."

Sheridan felt the muscles in his jaw pulling taut, a subtle sign of discomfort. "They came and saved Earth, we have to be extremely careful how we handle this. Lies or not the media is going to turn them into heroes."

"Perfect way to get into our inner circle and take us down from within." Garibaldi nodded.

"Do you actually have normal thoughts like everyone else, or is everything a conspiracy with you?" Sheridan poked a little at his old Chief of security.

"Get shot in the back once or twice and you'll be the same." He smiled a little. "I'm telling you John, something doesn't add up."

There was a chime, and on a display screen a message popped up for the President.

"I had the ships scanners give them the once over," he referred to the visitors. "They're human, and look at this, the types of toxins in their blood and lungs match what you'd expect to see on a planet which used fossil fuels, like twentieth century Earth."

"Or Early twenty first century." Garibaldi added. "Could be faked."

"Maybe, but this ship uses the best scanners we have, if they can fool them it'll be quite a feat." Sheridan turned off the screen. "You also have to ask why they'd go to the trouble."

"Chaos, power, money. The usual reasons."

"We need to check out their story, if its true we can trust them, at least a little." Sheridan proposed.

"How do we check it out, I mean they… the device." He realised.

"The device." Sheridan grinned. "If we go out there and find something in the Asteroid field we'll know they're telling the truth, or at least part of the truth."

"Plus if we find it we can put a guard on it, just to be safe."

"Agreed, but we need their help to find this artefact or device or whatever." Sheridan stated, remembering none too fondly the last dimensional portal he had discovered leading to Thirdspace. "So play along, we'll let them think we're taking their word for it until we get our own proof. Ideally we should get a telepath in to see if they're hiding anything."

"Telepaths can be fooled." Garibaldi mentioned. "But if we get hard evidence, I'll be happier."

"Yeah, me too." Sheridan sighed, it had been a very long few days and showed no sign of easing off yet. "Remember when we just used to sit on a station and we only had to worry about getting stomped on by Shadows, Vorlons of our own government?"

"Happy days." Garibaldi grinned. "We're just getting old, I for one am looking forward to solving this mystery."

"Well if they can help us defeat the plague, I'd cut a deal with anyone for a cure to that thing." Sheridan had admitted. "We need to act on this very quickly."

"I'll have the Rangers start looking through the Asteroid belt. If they know what to look for…"

"It'll still take too long, no we'll have to try a more direct route and go ourselves." Sheridan concluded. "Okay Michael, stay on board for now, we're not done for the day yet."

USAF _Daedalus_

"I don't think they bought it." Novak said as they exited the hanger deck.

"I wouldn't have either." Colonel Caldwell confessed, "But it's the way it happened, we'll just have to convince them."

They stepped through a solid airtight door and began walking down towards engineering.

"Our main concern is getting home." Caldwell stated. "We can't leave our own home down a ship like _Daedalus_, especially with the developing situation out in the Pegasus galaxy. We did good here, but we should be doing good back home."

Novak nodded in agreement, absently noticing how spotless the ships corridors were as they made it into engineering.

"We'll they didn't shoot us or try to steal our ship, I'd call that a good first move towards diplomacy."

Caldwell grunted, possibly in mild amusement. "Stranger things have happened."

They found Hermiod still in engineering pouring over the displays of his sensor package examining the plague in Earths atmosphere.

"Anything new?" Caldwell asked by way of greeting.

"Actually yes." Hermiod said smugly. "I have made a major breakthrough."

"A breakthrough about the Plague?" Novak queried.

"No, this is more important."

Novak wasn't sure what could be more important then the lives of ten billion people, but she listened on. "What then?"

"Our location, I believe the Ancient device has…"

"Yeah, alternate universe." Caldwell interrupted. "We already figured that out. What about the plague?"

"You figured it out?" Hermiod gave the Asgard version of a frown. "How did your primitive equipment discover that?"

"Well we asked around." Caldwell was growing impatient. "The Plague?"

Hermiod muttered something, and then provided a report. "It is extremely advanced, a type of nanite is the core component but it displays signs of biological components, it is mechanical yet also on some level alive."

"Like the components of human type replicators?" Caldwell frowned.

"No Colonel, like animal life mixed with mechanics, we have records of similar attempts to do this by other races in our home dimension, but they never achieved this sophistication."

"This disease is going to kill everyone on Earth." Caldwell stated bluntly.

"Everyone on this version of Earth." Hermiod corrected.

"It's the same thing." The Colonel snapped. "I don't think they have the ability to crack this alone, but we might just be able to, with the Asgard knowledge and our access to the Ancients city of Atlantis we could provide the information they need."

"Colonel, this places the Asgard in a strange position." Hermiod sighed. "While Earth is technically a protected planet, that protection does not extend across dimensions. We do not have the same obligation as we do to your home."

"It isn't about obligations, its about saving ten billion lives." Caldwell spoke coldly. "When we get back, we will be petitioning the Asgard council for help."

"Then it is their decision." Hermiod said simply. "I will continue gathering data, if only out of curiousity."

The Colonel gave him a harsh look, then turned away. "Assist him Dr Novak, and make sure you retrieve all relevant data."

"I will sir." She nodded, like the Colonel she fully appreciated what was at stake.

A couple of minutes later Colonel Caldwell made it up to the bridge, Earth still dominating the forward view.

"I think you made a new friend sir," Major Foster grinned. "President Sheridan just sent a message, he'd like to investigate this ancient device and make sure it isn't a threat."

It made sense, it was pure luck the _Daedalus_ had found this device, if it had been someone else like Anubis when he moved into the Solar system a year ago the story would have been a lot different. After seeing some of the technology in this universe Caldwell would be recommending a defence on his home side just like Sheridan seemed to be planning.

"Acknowledge that transmission, then give him the coordinates."

Caldwell had a number of issues weighing on his mind. Firstly despite orbiting Earth this was still technically a first contact situation and he had protocols to follow, the first of which was ensuring the safety of the SGC and the inhabitants of his homeworld. The next was to try and build trust with these people and try to create some sort of alliance or at least treaty to help strengthen his homeworld for the future, and finally he had standing orders to evaluate all technology he came across for application within the SGC. He had to face the possibility that these humans, despite sharing a similar planet to his own people, might not be trustworthy allies. After the reports on the Genii from the Atlantis expedition and his own history classes he was well aware that people often had hidden objectives.

He wanted to help, and was convinced it would be the right thing to do, but it would come down to President Hayes in the end and perhaps the Asgard council. He needed to get some information about the history of this planet to present to his government so they could get a real feel for whether President Sheridan was a democratic leader or a despot in disguise. Earth didn't deserve to die, even if it was populated by Neo-nazis, but allying with them was another question, as was allowing them into the SGC.

"We have confirmation from the _Excalibur_ sir." Foster brought him out of his thoughts. "They'll make a quick jump and see us there."

"Very well, engage engines and head for the device, we could use some more information on it ourselves."

"Like whether or not it'll take us home?"

Caldwell smiled "That's exactly what I was thinking Major." If it couldn't he was going to need to do some radical adjustments in his day to day routine.

Minbar

Homeworld of the Minbari Federation.

The dark robed human strode through the crystal city exuding confidence, he had no fear of this place or the inhabitants. He ignored the dark looks of warriors as he passed them on the street and walked quickly through the elegantly pointed doorway of the Interstellar Alliance government building. Just a few short years ago a human walking the glimmering streets of Tuzenore would have been ridiculous, he'd have been lynched by warriors while the rest of the population looked on in surprise, but the last few years had changed everything on Minbar, and it had been the humans that had been the catalyst that in the view of most Minbari saved their civilization.

This human called Minbar his home, or at least as much of a home as he could have. He wasn't a diplomat or soldier, he was a Ranger, one of the Anla'shok which roughly translated as 'Application of Force' set up by Valen to lead the war against the Shadows. They were despised by some, revered by others but respected by all and their record of service was bordering on legendary. They were an elite force and it was a fool who tried to stand in their way, especially this particular human. He stopped only when he reached his destination, a large door which he knocked carefully on.

"Come in." a gentle voice replied from beyond the portal, and the Ranger carefully entered using a quiet grace seemingly at odds with his determined march of a few seconds ago.

"Entil'zha." He spoke softly. "We have news from Earth, President Sheridan is alive and well, and the Shadow weapon is destroyed."

For a moment the leader of his order seemed to physically shrinking, her already slender frame bowing in relief as it let go of the stresses harboured within. He and his order were sworn to fight for this woman, he would lay down his life without question if she willed it, she was Entil'zha, she was Delenn of the family Mir, she was the greatest leader of her race since Valen. She rapidly regained her composure, a calm certainty returning to her movements and expression.

"Thank you." She bowed, her hands steepled in the Religious caste greeting.

"There is more, Entil'zha." He said haltingly. He had fought many enemies, had stared death in the face and defied the gods of old, but stood before this epitome of calm resolve he faltered to complete his report. "The Drakh, before retreating… they left a poison in Earths atmosphere. A plague from the Shadows."

Delenn did not speak immediately, but fixed the Ranger with a strong stare.

"We are still trying to find out what its effects will be, but it seems the entire planetary population will be affected."

"And the Drakh?" Delenn spoke quietly, but that soft voice was hard and sharp as a sword.

"Many were killed, and many fled." He answered. "The Earth fleet and our own ships are tracking them back to their base."

"When you find their base." Delenn continued quietly. "You will inform me, we will assemble a fleet and then we will kill them."

"Yes Entil'zha." He nodded. Delenns strength and ruthless streak were also well known to the Rangers, she was as quiet and gentle a woman as had ever walked the streets of Minbar, but she had a determination and a strength of will which had literally shaped the galaxy. "There is something else, the ship which gave us victory, it wasn't one of ours."

"Then who's was it?"

Delenn listened carefully to the answer, it seemed her husband had not lost his ability to attract strange fate.

000000000

"This is more than a curiosity." Shai Alyt Kathenn mused over the report from Earth. "It represents a display of how far beyond our control things have fallen."

Kathenn was an old warrior and a famed one, feared and respected in equal measure as master of the ferocious Wind Swords clan of the Warrior caste. The Wind swords were well known within Minbari society as the most warlike of all warriors and the most stubborn and reactionary. They yearned for war as if it were oxygen, it was vital to their existence and when battle could not be found they would invent it. Everyone knew they were the strongest supporters of the war with Earth, and countless lesser conflicts before, and their role in the Minbari's internal leadership crisis was the subject of much scrutiny. It was the Wind swords who broke Valens first law, that Minbari do not kill Minbari, and it was Kathenn who had given those orders.

"Our warriors in the battle reports that the new vessel spoke the human language." His aide, a powerful female named Antai informed him. While the Wind swords would never send a ship to help Earth on principle, some of the vessels had their clan members onboard.

"Of course it did." Kathenn grunted. "Look at the design, only humans could build something so basic and ugly."

"It outran the Ranger ships without difficulty." Antai added. "We know little else about its capabilities, but the speeds it achieved are cause enough for concern."

"The humans have played the Grey council, tricked us into revealing our secrets for this 'Victory' project to built new warships for the alliance, ships that are Earth force in all but name, when all along they had the technology to build something like this." Kathenn grimaced. "I always said these humans were a menace, and I am proved right."

"Perhaps now the other warriors will heed you." His aide hoped.

"Perhaps, we have lived in smug complacency too long, we are so reliant on our technology we have forgotten what makes a true warrior." Kathenn stared at the image of the small ship. "One day soon, we must become warriors once again, and fight for the glory of our people."

Asteroid belt

Sol system.

The _Excalibur_ dropped out of hyperspace in a blossom of blue light, its hull was still marked and scarred from the recent battle but the ship was still considered fully combat capable. To Garibaldi's surprise and mild annoyance the _Daedalus_ was already waiting for them.

"Sensors, begin a scan of the location we've been given." Sheridan ordered tiredly, he was fighting fatigue and in no mood for a long search. Fortunately the coordinates were accurate, and a tiny return on the scans was recorded.

"Well at least we didn't waste our trip." Garibaldi shrugged. "We just gotta see if its real."

"Move us closer, and try to get a clear reading." Sheridan said, and the new warship glided gently closer but still maintained a safe distance.

"Whatever its made of sir its absorbing most of our scans." The sensor officer reported. "Only the Vorlon based systems are working."

"Makes it a pretty sophisticated piece of equipment then?" Sheridan asked. "Is it Vorlon in origin?"

"Hard to say, but I don't think so."

In one respect that was a relief, Vorlon dimensional gates didn't not usually herald fun and games, but Sheridan hadn't heard of any other race building similar devices. Whatever this was it was something totally new and never before recorded.

"We have a visual sir." He reported, and the station display altered to reveal the device.

"Shiny." Garibaldi commented. "Looks brand new."

The screen showed the bright oval shaped device, giving its size as miles in diameter, easily big enough to fit even the largest ship through. Sheridans attention was drawn by writing on its elegant structure, a faint script etched into the surface.

"This writing, I've never seen it before." Sheridan squinted. "Not Vorlon, not Shadow, not Minbari. IPX is going to love this."

"Mr President, Colonel Caldwell of the _Daedalus_ for you."

Sheridan accepted the incoming transmission. "Colonel, can you tell us anything about this device?"

"Not much." He replied. "We tried a full scan when we encountered an identical piece back home, the scan triggered something and dropped us over here."

"You think scanning it again might send you home?"

"That's our theory, we were hoping to give it a try." Caldwell admitted. "We're in no rush to get home, but we need to know that the way is open for us."

"I understand Colonel, you want to try and open the portal?" Sheridan confirmed.

"We do, we'll keep our distance this time so we aren't dragged through, but we need to send a message probe through and make sure our superiors know we're intact and safe."

"And we can monitor the device functioning and give us a better idea how it works and why it ended up here." Sheridan agreed. "Very well Colonel, we'll keep our distance too and be ready for an activation."

He ended the transmission and gave Garibaldi a look. "What?"

"We've still only got their word on what it does." The bald man stated. "What if it activates and a fleet of unknown warships pour through? We're in no condition to fight off another attack."

Sheridan smiled thinly. "That's why I brought the _Excalibur_, if anything goes wrong we fire up the primary weapon and blast that gate to scrap."

"And hope its enough." Garibaldi commented.

"We're you always this paranoid?"

"For the tenth time, yeah." He smiled. "Comes with the job."

Their attention was drawn by the _Daedalus_ as it moved back, and then began a series of powerful scans directed at the device, almost immediately a huge power surge began gathering.

"What sort of scanners are they?" Garibaldi asked as the _Daedalus_ completed the sweep.

"Unknown sir," the _Excalibur's_ own tech replied. "They operate on very different principles to our own."

"What about the device, getting anything more?" Sheridan questioned.

"I have no idea where it's getting all that power from." The officer replied. "Energy readings don't match anything we've seen before, and some of the minerals in the device are new to science."

"Pretty nifty." Garibaldi admitted. "Maybe it is from a new universe?"

"Mr President, the device just activated I guess a sort of tractor beam, its sweeping space in front of it." Sensors reported.

"Must be how the _Daedalus_ got here." Sheridan said. "Are they moving yet?"

"Keeping their distance." Garibaldi answered, pointing through the bridge windows at the smaller ship.

"Watch when they send their probe or message buoy through the gateway." Sheridan ordered. "When it goes through I want to know…"

He was cut off by a violent shaking of the _Excalibur_. The ships bow turned noticeably and the scenery outside began moving.

"We're caught in the tractor beam!" the sensor officer yelled. "Its pulling us in!"

"Engines, full reverse!" Sheridan barked.

The huge warship diverted power to its drive systems, blue flame flaring from the forward thrusters but without a lot of effect, the wide device growing ever closer. The ship was shuddering violently enough so that Garibaldi lost his balance and fell to the floor beside Sheridan.

"It isn't working!" the female helm officer shouted. "Ten Kilometres to the device!"

"Sir, _Daedalus_ is off our flank, they are scanning the device, maybe trying to shut it down."

"Can we get a message to them?" asked Sheridan rapidly.

"Communications jammed, all frequencies are flooded by this energy field!"

The ship rocked violently again as the beam intensified.

"We can't break free of this!" Helm called out.

"The main gun?" Garibaldi shouted. "Destroy it!"

"We're too close!" Sheridan yelled in reply. "Its too late, hold on!"

The _Excalibur_ was dragged to the device, as it touched the hollow oval flashed with swirling blue energy like a rippling puddle which the ISA destroyer passed through like a diver. It was gone in an instant, leaving the device inactive and cooling down with the _Daedalus_ stood by able to do nothing but watch.

"Well, that wasn't good sir." Major Foster gave voice to the entire bridge crews thoughts.

"No, no it wasn't" Caldwell said. "We better tell the fleet what happened to their President."

"Think they'll be pissed at us for bringing him here sir?"

Caldwell gave her a look. If the ship had gone back to his own universe it would be safe, but there was a possibility it had gone to a completely different reality, there was just no way of knowing. "We need to follow them."


	7. Chapter 3 Continued

**Cheyenne Mountain Stargate Command.**

Buried in the Heart of the Mountain In a cluttered office that desperately needed to be cleaned General Jack O'Neill rummaged through his paper work. Requisitioning of supplies, status of off world operations and SG teams as well as reviewing a proposal put forth by the international committee to assign more personnel to the Atlantis mission. However at the moment he was doing his best to ignore the annoying pestering from his best friend Daniel Jackson.

"Come on Jack!" Daniel pleaded "I am the fore most expert on the Ancients on this planet. The Expedition team is going to need my expertise in translating the Ancient language and its dialects."

Gen O'Neill paused from shuffling his paper work on his desk. His face taking on an expression of deep thought before finally answering. "That's precisely why I need you here Daniel." General O'Neill began looking up to meet the eyes of his friend. "You're too important to this program to be gone for any length of time."

They had this argument ever time the issue of Atlantis came up; Daniel insisting to go and O'Neill denying him the opportunity, but O'Neill could always feel his resolve weaken after every argument. His arguments were based on the fact that Daniel was still critical in defending Earth from the Goa'uld, but that argument could only go so far.

Though the Goa'uld were still a threat they weren't the impending doom they once were, largely due to 7yrs of hard work and the recent Jaffa rebellion. However in those moments of blunt and complete honesty; O'Neill knew he kept Daniel around because He'd miss his friend. With Carter soon to be taking over Research and Development at Nellis and Teal'c leaving for Dakara to join the Jaffa council it felt like his he was losing his family.

"Jack the Daedalus will be gone 2 months at most, I'll be back in no time." Daniel persisted, waking O'Neill from his revere.

"No Daniel." Gen. O'Neill said exasperatedly turning his attention back to his paper work with a noticeable grimace.

"Jack…" Daniel began.

"No." Gen. O'Neill ended.

Just as it seemed Daniel was about to continue the Argument a knock came at the Generals door. O'Neill grateful for the distraction shouted. "It's open!"

The door opened to reveal the worried face of LtCol. Samantha Carter as she entered the Generals office.

_Perfect timing Carter_ he thought. "Carter!" Gen. O'Neill shouted enthusiastically. "What's up?"

"Hey Sam." Daniel piped in.

"Hey Daniel." Carter said acknowledging him before turning her full attention to General O'Neill. "Sir the Daedalus is 13hours overdue to check in and we've been unable to raise her for the past hour." Carter reported.

"Ahh weren't they supposed to remain in the system?" Daniel asked.

"Yes." Carter began. "The Daedalus was going to the Asteroid belt to test the effectiveness of her rail guns and missiles. The test was supposed to take 3 hours before returning to Earth.

"Ahh crap." O'Neill winced before rising from his desk. "Why cant these things ever go as planned?" O'Neill asked rhetorically. "So I take it no word from them huh"

"None sir." Cater offered. "We monitored the Daedalus as she entered the asteroid field then we lost her. Several minutes later there was a huge energy surge not far from where she entered the field, then nothing."

"What kind of Energy surge?" Daniel asked from his chair.

"We're not sure." Carter began. "Walter is running it through the base computer trying to find a match."

"Don't hold your breath." O'Neill muttered. "With the way our luck runs it'll probably be something involving saving the world." O'Neill deadpanned.

"What do you want to do sir?" Cater asked.

"How soon can Prometheus be ready?" O'Neill asked.

Carters face took on a blank expression as her mind went over the Status reports she had read earlier that morning. "Prometheus still has another 48hrs work minimal before the new Asgard Sensor Pallets are fully operational. Additionally the Yard master has to certify her space worthy after her latest refit and you know what a pain in the ass that's going to be.

O'Neill shook his head in acknowledgement. Prometheus the technological wonder that she was tended to spend more time in her berth undergoing repairs and refits following every major deployment. Many in the Pentagon had argued it had been due to the flaws in her design rather than the fact she underwent her refits after receiving her Asgard systems. Still; after a lot of pressure the appropriations committee caved in to the demands of the Pentagon and discontinued production of the 303 before it had a chance to get off the ground, in favor of the newer and more heavily armed Daedalus class. Meaning Prometheus was a one of a kind.

"Carter, Contact Prometheus berth and tell them to have the ship ready in 12 hours. I want the 302 squadrons fully up and running as well. Were going to need every ship we have."

"Yes sir." She replied before leaving his office.

O'Neill headed for the door when he stopped suddenly turning to the still sitting Daniel. "Feel like coming?" he asked.

"Sure I've got nothing else to do." Daniel replied.

Both men left the Generals office passing through the briefing room and down the circular flight of stairs arriving at the control room several moments later.

"Sir I just got off the Phone with the Groom Lake facility." Carter began once they arrived in the control room "they're expediting repair work to meet your time frame."

"Well that was quick." O'Neill Muttered offhanded.

"Well when I explained the situation they realized what was at stake." Cater explained.

"Good job Carter." O'Neill praised.

"A plane is being prepped at Peterson air base for me." Cater said.

"Us Carter." O'Neill replied.

"Sir?" Cater asked confused.

"We're going with you Sam." Daniel said before O'Neill could reply.

"Hope you got some bags packed kiddies." O'Neill enthused. "Carter when's our flight?"

"It should be fueling up now sir, another hour." Carter reported.

"Excellent." O'Neill began. "Anything on that Energy surge?" O'Neill asked suddenly shifting gears.

"The computer hasn't been able to find a match sir." Carter reported. "It's a complete unknown"

"Business as usual then." Daniel deadpanned.

"Let's go kiddies." O'Neill said. As he departed the control room Daniel swore he heard Jack singing "we're off to see the wizard the wonderful wizard of oz."

**GROOM LAKE FACILITY **

**PROMETHEUS BERTH 14HRS LATER.**

In her Underground Hanger the first Interstellar Battle cruiser of the United States Air Force laid powered down in her berth. Though the Ship was supposed to have launched two hours ago a problem cropped up within the ships sub light drives that needed repair before the ship could launch. Unfortunately for LtCol Samantha Carter it was providing a distraction of a different sort.

"Cater?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes sir?" Carter responded already knowing what the General was going to say.

"We're still on the ground." O'Neill whined.

"Yes sir." She responded.

"Carter?" O'Neill began again.

"Yes sir?" She replied knowingly.

"We're still on the ground." O'Neill repeated.

"Almost finished sir." Carter announced snapping in another Naquada relay. A high pitched whining could briefly be heard before fading into the background from the noise generated from the ships engines. "That should do it." Cater announced triumphantly.

"_Engineering this is the Bridge well done Colonel."_ The Voice of Col. Pentergast said over the loudspeaker.

"Thank you sir." Cater responded into the Net.

Both Officers departed Engineering through the maze of corridors before ending up on the Bridge just as the crew was going through their final preflight checklists.

"Sub light Thrusters powered up and idle."

"Antigrav wave generators on standby.

"Switching to internal life support."

"Main reactor powering up to full.

"Secondary generators at nominal generation."

"Inertial Dampener and Shields set to maximum."

The Calm voice of Major Gant could be heard by both O'Neill and Carter as they entered the Bridge.

Realizing that both General O'Neill and LtCol. Carter had entered the Bridge Col. Pendergast Rose from his chair and assumed a respectful stance before addressing the General.

"General we're clear to depart." Col. Pendergast reported.

"Excellent!" O'Neill exclaimed clasping his hands together. "Let's get this show on the road."

"Yes sir." Col. Pendergast replied. "Major set inertial compensators and Shields to maximum, Initiate Launch sequence." Col. Pendergast ordered.

The Docking clamps holding Prometheus in placed released their grip on the mammoth ship just as the overhead bay doors began to retract themselves. Once opened the antigravity wave generators aboard Prometheus slowly propelled the ship upward out of her berth. Once clear she hovered 50 ft above the ground for several seconds silent as a ghost before her twin sub light drives ignited propelling the ship upward toward the atmosphere and Earth orbit.

"We've reached standard orbit sir." Major Gant reported once Prometheus cleared the Atmosphere.

"Very Good Major." Pendergast began "What's the status of our fighters?"

"Snake Eater and Goa'uld buster squadrons are exiting the Ionosphere now sir." Major Gant reported from her station.

"Excellent." Col. Pendergast said. "Major plot a small hyperspace jump to Daedalus's last known coordinates then feed them to our fighters."

"Executing now sir." Major Gant responded manipulating her controls.

The F 302's of Snake Eater and Goa'uld buster squadrons closed in a tight formation with Prometheus the Larger ships engine nacelles growing bright for a few seconds before thrusting the Ship and her Fighter escort in to Hyperspace and returning them to normal space 5000km from Daedalus's last known position.

"We have arrived at the designated coordinates." Major Gant announced.

"Major deploy the fighters ahead of the ship." Col. Pendergast ordered "begin Radar sweep of the area."

"Yes sir."

Though the yardmaster had reluctantly certified Prometheus as space worthy for her mission the rush to get her out ahead of schedule meant all her systems hadn't been fully tested to specs. The yard master had argued that when new equipment was installed particularly advanced alien equipment major testing and retooling of the ships current systems were paramount in preventing any "gremlins" from cropping up. However fearing that the Daedalus crew might be in jeopardy the yard master decided to forgo major testing hoping that the advanced alien systems didn't act up, or Earth would be down both battle cruisers.

The Search and Rescue operation was heading in to its second hour; with the F-302s and Prometheus slowly prowling the asteroid field searching for the lost ship. Full Radar sweeps of any given search zone were problematic as the mass of stellar debris cluttered the scope beyond 500km and sometimes as much as 1400meters. Realizing the search was moving far too slowly Col. Pendergast reluctantly decided to go active with the untested Asgard sensors. Although the sensors performed flawlessly on the Daedalus, Prometheus was an Entirely different ship suffering from the drawback that the sensors were never integrated into her design unlike her sister ship, but rather "tacked on after the fact" as LtCol. Carter had described. Col. Pendergast was worried how the new sensors might perform, hoping they didn't burn out the entire sensor array.

"Col. I'm reading a faint contact 60,000km dead astern." Major Gant reported.

"What search zone?" Col. Pendergast inquired.

"Search zone 11 Charlie sir." Major Gant reported. "We must have pasted right by it."

"How comes the Radar didn't pick it up?" Gen. O'Neill spoke up for the first time in 2 hours.

"Unknown sir." Major Gant responded.

"Well it's the only lead we've had in 2 hours." Col. Pendergast surmised. "Major plot a course best speed."

"Yes sir." Major Gant replied.

Prometheus came about on a direct heading for the faint contact ahead of the ship, Snake Eater and Goa'uld buster squadrons abandoned their search zones in favor of rendezvousing with Prometheus as they investigated this new development. A short time later the asteroid field cleared revealing a large area of open space.

"Major?" Col. Pendergast asked slightly confused.

"The Contact is dead ahead sir. 4000km distance." Major Gant reported. "It's definitely firming up."

"No trouble with the scanners Major?" the Colonel wanted to confirm.

"Asgard sensors are working as advertised sir." Major Gant assured.

Prometheus closed the distance cautiously with her fighters acting as a forward screen in case of potential trouble. On board the ship the object was just now coming into visual range and what the bridge crew saw stunned them.

"Carter?" General O'Neill began. "What is that?"

"I have no idea sir." LtCol. Carter responded dumbfounded. "It bears some resemblance to a Stargate but it's still quite different in appearance."

"Look at the size of that thing!" O'Neill exclaimed. "It's huge!"

"What ever it is Our Radar can't detect it." Major Gant reported. "I'm only able to read the…object with the Asgard sensors.

"Is it possible the Daedalus stumbled onto this thing?" Daniel asked.

"It's very possible." Carter speculated. "They're testing zone wasn't that far away. My guess is they detected something on their Asgard scanners and went to investigate."

"Which would have lead the here." Daniel said finishing her line of thought.

"More than likely." Carter confirmed.

"So it's a …_Stargate_?" O'Neill asked sheepishly.

"Well sir that's a little hard to tell at the moment." Carter began as she hunched over Major Gants display. "We'll need to take some scans to get a better idea of what we're dealing with."

"Sam is that writing on the Object." Daniel asked moving closer to the forward viewer totally absorbed in the view.

"Magnifying." Major Gant responded from her station. Just above the main view port the ships main monitor zoomed in on a section of the device revealing some form of script. Daniel Jackson spent several quite moments studying the script on the surface of the device.

"You recognize it Daniel?" LtCol. Carter asked from Major Gants station.

"Well I can't be sure at a first glance but it appears to be a dialect of Ancient." Daniel responded after a few moments of thought.

"So..?" Gen. O'Neill began

"Jack we're looking at something constructed by the Ancients!" Daniel exclaimed excitedly, more confident in his early assessment.

"So what's it doing here?' General O'Neill asked. "More importantly "why" is it here?"

"I don't know." Daniel said absently, still riveted to the device.

"Oh for crying out loud!" O'Neill muttered to himself.

"Sir I'm reading a massive energy build up in the device!" Major Gant announced suddenly. "Energy is continually building at an exponential rate."

"Colonel." LtCol. Carter said directing her attention to Col. Pendergast. "The device may be preparing to engage its primary function."

"This means boys and girls!" O'Neill announced for everyone to hear "That we need to be somewhere other than here."

Col. Pendergast didn't need a second thought on the matter. Unknown alien devices powering up for no reason for an unspecified purpose typically didn't bode well for the unlucky sap that happened to come across it. "Major Gant get us clear of that thing and have our fighters hightail it with us." Col. Pendergast ordered.

"Already on it Colonel." Major Gant announced.

Prometheus and her escort wing of F-302s pulled back a respectful distance from the device. Once Col. Pendergast was confident they were in the clear Prometheus slowed to station keeping speed her powerful sensor array recording every ounce of data possible.

On the device 4 points of blue energy on either side of the Oval structure grew brighter in intensity, the inner oval of the device glowing as well before the energy cascaded on itself creating the appearance of a rippling pool of water.

"Just like a stargate…" Samantha Carter muttered to herself totally transfixed by the site before her.

The entire Bridge crew of Prometheus looked on in total wonder at the device. The blue light radiating from the event horizon showering the bridge in a hue of blue light; however what emerged from the device turned their feelings of wonder and excitement to one of sheer dread.

A massive ship unlike anything they had ever seen before emerged from the Event Horizon. The Massive ship was many times the size of the tiny Prometheus and had an odd Tri-wing design that didn't seem to follow any particular design philosophy O'Neill could recognize…as if the ship was a mix of several different tech bases. Its shear size and big honkin space guns spoke of a pure ship killer with incredible power, and O'Neill didn't want to guess what Prometheus's odds were if they had to face that monstrosity. Slowly as the giant ship bore down of the Tiny Prometheus O'Neill let loose a small muttered curse felt by the entire crew.

"Oh crap."


	8. Chapter 4 The Ties That Bind

Chapter 4

'The ties that bind'

"On the plus side we aren't dead." Garibaldi coughed. "At least I hope not, because otherwise the after life sucks."

Sheridan stood from his chair, feeling the burning in his legs as the muscles relaxed after straining against the G forces of the journey. "I thought you didn't believe in all that spiritual stuff?"

Garibaldi picked himself up from the floor and shrugged, at least the floor was pristinely clean. "Any port in a storm. So where are we?"

"Earth." Lieutenant Cross on sensors reported. "Well, the solar system at least close to the Asteroid belt."

"Exactly the same location we were at a minute ago?" Garibaldi frowned.

"Well, almost sir." The officer replied. "We nothing on sensors."

"Nothing?" Sheridan grimaced, he had a bad feeling about this. "No defence grid, no fleet, no colony on Mars or the Belt Alliance stations?"

"Wait," Cross spoke up. "Single ship rounding an Asteroid, its small but doesn't match anything on record."

"Check what its hull is made of." Sheridan said. "Then cross reference with the readings we had on _Daedalus_."

"Perfect match sir, a combination of known and unknown metals."

Sheridan and Garibaldi exchanged glances, it seemed now obvious what had happened. "Okay, fine." Garibaldi sighed grumpily. "Maybe they were telling the truth."

"Signal coming in Mr President." Cross said. "Its on a radio frequency."

"Sounds like twenty first century tech." Sheridan muttered to Garibaldi before answering. "Lets hear it."

The bridge crew halted their duties, each one fascinated and more than a little nervous about the unfolding situation. They were crewing the most advanced ship to leave a spacedock, but they were still isolated in what looked a lot like an alternate reality with unknown dangers to threaten them.

"Unknown vessel, this is the United States Airforce vessel _Prometheus_. Identify yourselves and your reason for being here." An American accented voice said in plain English. "Please." He added as an after thought.

"Open up a channel, same frequency." Sheridan said, a nod from Cross indicating it was ready. "_Prometheus_ this is the Starship _Excalibur_, we come in peace."

"Nice and original." Garibaldi smiled. "Ask them to take us to their leader."

"_Excalibur_," the voice replied. "Would you like us to take you to our leader?"

Sheridan noted Garibaldi's eyes widen in surprise and a little amusement. "I think that would be helpful. My name is John Sheridan, commander of the Interstellar…" he paused, best not give away too much yet. "…Interstellar fleet command."

"John Sheridan?" the voice replied with bemusement. "Sounds like a human name. Where did you come from?"

"Long story, but I can tell you we met the _Daedalus_, she one of yours?"

"_Daedalus_?" the commander of the other ship sounded much more alert now. "Where is she? Is she safe?"

"Perfectly safe, that's also kind of a long story." Sheridan admitted. "I invite you aboard, Captain…?"

"O'Neill, General actually, and I humbly accept your invitation. We'll send over a shuttle."

The transmission ended, leaving the bridge quietly surprised.

"Did I mention this is turning into a very weird experience?" Sheridan raised the question.

"Yeah, once or twice." Garibaldi nodded. "I'll go roll out the welcome wagon."

0000000000

"Do you think it's bigger than an _O'Neill_?" wondered the General concerning his namesake.

"Well we never got any accurate data on the Asgard _O'Neill_ class." Carter shrugged. "Ironic really considering the name."

"Hmm" Jack nodded. "I think its smaller. Certainly not as cool looking."

"It looks a lot bigger to me." Daniel Jackson squinted. "Way, way bigger."

They were leaning forward to stare through the shuttles forward window as Carter piloted the small triangular vehicle towards the hamger bay resting under the newly arrived ships hull like an open maw.

"Anyone remember what happened to Jonah?" O'Neill commented as the shuttle began the final approach.

"Well, it was kind of a happy ending." Jackson said. "He made it home."

"Oh yeah." The general nodded. "Plus he rescued his puppet who came to life."

"Err, wrong 'swallowed by a Whale' story Jack. But yeah, happy ending on both counts."

"You notice the writing on the side?" Carter interjected. "it was in English."

"Plus they spoke English without needing translators." Jackson added.

"Please, the whole galaxy speaks English, in fact more than one galaxy." O'Neill snorted.

The shuttle touched down, passing a magnetic field which kept the ships atmosphere within the hanger and gently settles in the middle of the deck.

"More English writing." Carter pointed out. "And take a look over there, looks like a fighter."

O'Neill examined the craft, it was notably larger than an F-302 with four engines mounted on the wingtips and an oversized gun embedded in its nose. "Now that's mean looking." He said. "Note to Area 51 Carter, bigger guns on our fighters next time."

"Yes General." She smiled. "take a look, our welcome party."

"A bald guy." O'Neill chirped. "If his eyes glow we are in so much trouble."

He dropped open the ramp, and in company with Carter and Jackson he followed in Colonel Caldwells footsteps and walked out onto the clean hanger deck. General Jack O'Neill." He said formally. "This is Lieutenant Colonel Carter and Doctor Jackson."

"My name is Michael Garibaldi, head of Edgars-Garibaldi industries." He reached out his hand. "Welcome to the _Excalibur_"

"Glad to be aboard." O'Neill took his hand. "So, what the hell is going on?"

"If you'll come with me it'll all be explained." Garibaldi nodded.

"That'll be a welcome change." O'Neill glanced at his comrades, the numbers of scientific or archaeological lectures he'd heard over the last eight years could have filled an encyclopaedia.

A few minutes later they were on the transit car heading for the ships bridge section.

"The ship has its own subway." O'Neill shook his head in wonder. "You see Carter, nobody walks on spaceships except us!"

"General sir, you know the BC-303 programme was based on practicality." Carter said indulgently. "A subway and turbolifts weren't necessary."

The car stopped and Garibaldi directed them down another corridor towards the ships lift shaft. "We still need to go up a few dozen decks to reach the bridge." Garibaldi explained. "You know my Company built this thing?"

"So where are you from exactly?" Jackson asked.

"Exactly?" Garibaldi smiled. "The Bronx."

"New York city?" Carter gasped in surprise. "But how did you…"

"Like I said, we've got a long story for you." Garibaldi smiled. "Here's the transport tube."

"Transport tube?" O'Neill piped up. "Like a giant hoover that sucks us up through the ship?"

"More like an elevator." Garibaldi suppressed a chuckle. "Come on, nearly there."

The lift took them up to the bridge level, depositing them close to the ships conference room where Sheridan was once again waiting to greet representatives from the SGC.

"So how long did it take to build this thing?" Carter asked examining the wall panels.

"Three Years for the two prototypes." Garibaldi answered. "From the President telling us what he wanted to the first combat mission."

"Wait," Carter physically stopped, halting the small group. "You're telling me you went from concept to prototype in just three years?"

"Well yeah, it would have been quicker but we had all sorts of problems incorporating the new technologies." Garibaldi said. "Oh, and my project manager was a traitor, just one more reason why I'll be firing his ass when we get home."

"Well, we built the _Prometheus_ in a similar amount of time from untested technology." Jackson pointed out.

"Yes Daniel, but _Prometheus _lives in a hole under the desert," O'Neill commented. "This thing wouldn't fit in the desert."

"The conference room is just here." Garibaldi pressed a control and the doors opened with a swish.

"They have Star Trek doors!" O'Neill exclaimed. "Damn it Carter, I want…"

"Practicality General." She reminded him. "Maybe on the next generation designs."

"Damn straight." The general frowned, then stepped through the door under Garibaldi's bemused look, giving him a quick grin on the way in. Sheridan was waiting for them to enter and rose in greeting welcoming in the three visitors and Garibaldi who shut the door behind them.

"Welcome aboard, I'm John Sheridan please sit down."

The four other people pulled up seats and tried to make themselves comfortable, with Carter examining the display panel opposite her in great detail.

"Alright Captain Sheridan." O'Neill began. "First I want to know about _Daedalus_."

"She's safe." Sheridan said. "And now that you're here you should know I'm not the Captain of this ship, I'm President of the Alliance that built it to fight a war back home. The _Daedalus_ got caught up in that war, now don't worry, she's unharmed. In fact this will probably answer most of your questions." He activated the display Carter was studying. "Computer, play back ships log beginning from when we jumped into Earth space before the Drakh."

O'Neill watched in fascination at the collection of video images and data readouts paraded before him, he'd seen a few spacebattles, and he'd caused a couple too, but this was something far beyond what he'd reasonably expected to see. He paid particular attention to the green beam weapons and the constant rain of pulses fired from the _Excalibur_ to try and get a feel for how tough this ship was, and the amount of fire it sustained without any visible shields gave him something to think about. As the battle seemed to reach a decisive point the _Daedalus_ arrived, he recognized Colonel Caldwell's voice on the ships communication logs and kept a close eye as the small ship engaged the terrifyingly named 'Death Cloud' with its nuclear payload. While the cloud was destroyed the Drakh still unleashed a final trick on Earth, poisoning its atmosphere.

"So there's the story so far." Garibaldi said. "Your guys helped us out, and when we came to investigate this thing that brought them over it sucked us in and dropped us out here."

"It'd make a pretty good movie." O'Neill allowed. "So you think this thing is a dimensional gate?"

"Its pretty hard to believe." Sheridan shrugged. "But Caldwell thought so too, and we've come across something similar before."

"Another dimensional gate?" Carter said excitedly. "What happened? Did you activate it?"

"Yeah, it drove everyone crazy and then an advanced alien fleet tried to come through and wipe out all life." Sheridan stated simply.

"See Carter," O'Neill chided. "Sometimes it is best just to leave things alone. What happened?"

"I nuked it." Sheridan smiled.

"Solid call." O'Neill grinned. "Can't beat a couple of megatons in a crisis."

Sheridan gave a short laugh. "Abso-fragging-lutely!"

"Well, now that we've found some common ground, with the blowing things up," Jackson said in his slightly embarrassed intonation he often reverted to after one of O'Neill's more forthright comments. "Perhaps we can clarify whom we represent?"

"I'll go first." O'Neill raised his hand. "I represent the United States Government and the People of Earth in general. Welcome to our humble solar system." He bowed his head with a little theatrical flourish. "Our mission is to seek out new worlds and civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before, steal big honking space guns, kick evil ass and protect Earth from huge warships that show up in our space."

"And I represent the Interstellar Alliance, an economic union of a few dozen worlds sharing technology and trade." Sheridan followed on. "We're a democracy and aim to improve life and aim to grant basic freedoms to every living being in the galaxy, plus we protect our citizens from threats like the Drakh."

"And you have no record of races like the Goa'uld or Asgard?" Jackson queried.

"Not a hint of them." Sheridan shrugged. "I guess evolution took a different path where we come from."

"Well we haven't seen any of the races on your video logs." Carter looked at a frozen image of a large curving blue ship.

"We'd be interested in a description of some of these new races." Jackson enthused. "Its fascinating to se such varied…"

He was interrupted by an incoming message. "Mr President, we're reading an energy spike in the portal."

"Move us away fast." Sheridan replied "And patch through an image to this room." He added.

The display screen showed the image of the ring, it shifted a little as the _Excalibur_ moved away and then stabilised, the large device beginning to light up as the energy coursed through it.

"Your ship is right beside us." Sheridan assured O'Neill. "We're much further away than last time."

"What triggered it?" Jackson wondered. "We didn't do anything."

"It might be something coming from the other side." Carter suggested. "One of your ships maybe Mr President."

The room fixed their attention an the device, its centre flashing and filling with the same rippling veneer of a conventional stargate. For a moment nothing happened, and then from within a single small shape emerged.

"The _Daedalus_." Carter smiled in recognition. "They made it back."

"Mind if I have a word?" O'Neill looked to Sheridan.

"Of course, bridge?" Sheridan tapped the intercom. "Open a channel to _Daedalus_, route it to the conference room."

The screen remained the same showing the SGC cruiser moving closer, the gate shutting off behind it, but the speakers crackled into life.

"_Daedalus_ to _Prometheus_, reporting all systems safe and normal, consider the large vessel that preceded us friendly, I repeat, friendly. Just wait uait until you see our report." Caldwells familiar voice announced.

"Colonel, this is General O'Neill. I hear you've had some adventures without informing me."

"Sorry General, it all kind of took us by surprise."

"I'm on the _Excalibur_ with your new friend President Sheridan, he tells me you've been blowing up some really big stuff. Good work, now take a shuttle over here and give me a full report."

After an hour Caldwell had arrived on the _Excalibur_, greeted O'Neill and Sheridan and then made his report. It confirmed the images shown from the _Excalibur's_ records and highlighted just how much danger Earth had been in, and the reality of the Drakh Plague which was infecting their twin world.

"Hermiod has sent his data to the Asgard council, and we have a copy to take home ourselves." Caldwell concluded the report. "It is my recommendation that we provide what assistance we can to fight the Plague and help our fellow people."

O'Neill rested back in his seat, his face deeply thoughtful and betraying his serious side. To the SGC O'Neill had a reputation as a joker, someone who would try and find humour in every situation. But for his closest friends there was another side, the part of him that looked out for those under his responsibility and was able to make hard decisions quickly and confidently. The Airforce did not promote its officers based on their ability to make people laugh and O'Neill was no exception.

"Carter, what can you do with the information we have?" he asked.

"Not much sir." She shook her head. "its far beyond anything we've seen before, we have some experience with alien viruses but not on this scale."

"But we can try and help?" O'Neill stated. "Then that's good enough for now. We'll talk to the Atlantis team and see if they know anything more than us."

"Before we commit full resources we'll need to get backing from President Hayes, and for this kind of expenditure it's going to be hard." Carter grimaced.

"The President's a politician, he'll do whatever is in his best interest." Jackson said, then quickly remembered Sheridan. "No offence Mr President."

"None taken." Sheridan nodded. "We need as much help as we can get, if we have your people on it as well as ours it'll make the job happen faster. What would it take to make your President help us?"

"As far as bribes go his threshold is pretty high." O'Neill shrugged. "But he's got a soft spot for space guns…" O'Neill tailed of with an innocent look around at the ship he was on.

"You want weapons technology?" Sheridan said bluntly.

"Well you know, it wouldn't hurt." The General smiled. "Well, wouldn't hurt us."

"How about laser based weapons, heavy particle cannons, a full planetary defence grid and lightweight engines for fighters and missiles?" Sheridan rattled off. "Would that convince him?"

"Well," O'Neill blinked a couple of times. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Your government will just give us this stuff?" Carter asked in surprise. "I mean the defence grid alone, I guess you mean those satellite weapons platforms right? That's got to be trillions of dollars worth of firepower!"

"We will give you two hundred of those platforms, and if we have a deal the means to build more." Sheridan said firmly. "Make no mistake, the survival of my home has no price."

"Just one thing." Jackson spoke up. "An orbital ring of satellites is going to be pretty obvious and it wouldn't take a genius to work out we didn't put them there."

"So?" Sheridan frowned. "Its got to be worth it?"

"There's this whole thing where nobody knows about aliens." O'Neill shrugged. "Our entire lives are secret, even these ships are unknown to anyone outside the highest world leaders."

"And suddenly putting huge cannons in orbit would probably tip the game." Carter said with clear disappointment.

"Maybe I can talk to Thor, see if he can spare some cloaking generators." O'Neill shrugged. "I mean would the Asgard really miss a couple of hundred?" he got some unconvinced looks from his team. "Really? I mean he totally owes us."

"Well in any case the defence grid is a long term offer." Sheridan commented. "It'll take a while to build them, but the other stuff should be easy. You can download the theory for laser and pulse weapons before you leave."

"With permission General," Colonel Caldwell raised his voice. "How about interceptors? During the battle we saw Earth ships neutralising energy weapons, we think we could use the same system to stop Goa'uld cannons."

"Interceptors?" Sheridan said thoughtfully. "Earth force is a bit touchy about who it gives those to. But I think they will if that's your price."

"Mr President, if it were up to me I'd help for nothing." O'Neill sighed. "But I figure you understand how politicians work, if we offer him this technology he'll have no choice but to help."

"If we can work together on this it could herald a very useful agreement between our two groups, we both have assets that the other needs."

"Yeah," Garibaldi added his thoughts. "I know a couple of ship wrights on Mars who'd love to check out one of your ships."

"Same here." O'Neill smiled. "Well, they aren't on Mars."

Sheridan rose from his chair, glancing at each person assembled together. "Well now you know where we stand, and I know where you stand. We aren't a threat to each other and share a birthplace. Our blood is the same, yours, mine and the ten billion people trapped and doomed by this plague. I'd like to take my time with this, I'm sure we all would. But we can't. We need help right now, and in return we will help you in your times of need because we are the same. We share the same ties that bind humanity into one species, and I find that remarkable."

O'Neill stood up also, the rest of SG 1 following along. "Well Mr President, I happen to agree with you. Like they say blood is thicker than water. I'll make a report to my superiors and recommend helping find a cure and give them your offer of technology. Even if I have to do this behind the Presidents back you will get help, that's a promise."

"I want you to take Mr Garibaldi with you." Sheridan added. "He can give your leaders details of our offer and negotiate on behalf of the ISA."

There was a surprised cough from the table as Garibaldi inhaled a mouthful of water. "Excuse me? What did you say?"

"Stay here Michael and handle things for us, then when you come up with a package head on back." Sheridan said plainly. "I need someone I can trust here, you're the only one for the job, nobody else can be so damn stubborn in a crisis!"

"Well thanks, I think." Garibaldi frowned. "A gesture of trust huh? Did I mention I don't trust people I don't know?"

"You don't trust people you do know!" Sheridan chuckled. "Which is another reason you're the best choice. Besides, keep you out of trouble for a while."

"Alright." Garibaldi surrendered. "But if we end up at war with General O'Neill's people I told you so."

"It'll be cool." O'Neill assured. "People will think you're Bruce Willis, you'll fit right in."

"Who?" The former intelligence chief frowned.

"Don't worry about it." Carter smiled. "You get used to the Generals personality after a while."

"Eight years following him on alien worlds, doesn't really give you a choice." Jackson sighed. "Not that I mind." He added after catching O'Neill's eye.

"Alright then, sounds like a plan." Sheridan grinned. "I have to be heading back, as President I have to be ready to deal with the aftermath of the attack."

"Of course." O'Neill nodded. "So how do you get back?"

"As far as I know only the integrated Asgard scanners on my ship can trigger the device." Caldwell interjected. "Until we figure out exactly what frequency triggers it _Daedalus_ has the only key to the gate."

"Fair enough Colonel," O'Neill said. "Lets head on home and open the gate for the President, then we better go see the President. I mean the other President. Lets just go."

SG 1 and a slightly reluctant Garibaldi began to head out for the hanger bay. O'Neill paused at the door and turned to Sheridan. "Good luck back home. When I get an answer I'll come back through the gate and tell you personally."

"Thank you General." Sheridan nodded. "We'll be waiting, all ten billion of us."

The gate opened in a dazzle of lights allowing the _Excalibur_ to return to its home dimension. From the _Prometheus_ Garibaldi watched it go and the portal home flicker shut behind it.

"It's a fine ship." Colonel Pendergast said from the command chair.

"You kidding?" O'Neill turned from the window. "It was frickin awesome! It had its own subway! And Star Trek doors! I want the _Oddesey_ refitted with conveyor belts in its corridors. Make a note of that Carter."

"They had conveyer belts in their corridors?" Prendergast asked in disbelief.

"No, that's why I want them." O'Neill replied as if it were the most normal order in the galaxy. "to have something cool that they don't. take care of it Carter."

"Yes General." She smiled. "You're resources must be amazing back home." She addressed Garibaldi.

"When we mobilise it can be impressive to look at, you saw the ships we gathered for the battle." He answered. "But all the ships in the galaxy won't mean anything if that plague takes hold. We've got to do something about it today."

"And we will." O'Neill said with deep feeling. "When I say I'll break orders to help I mean it, this is bigger than me and Colonel Caldwell is right there with me, I can guarantee the whole SGC will be too. One way or another you'll have our help."

"Permission to return home General?" Prendergast asked.

"By all means." O'Neill nodded. "Mark this location on the charts and monitor it in case someone else uses the gate, then take us back to Nellis."

The _Prometheus_ and _Daedalus_ came about and began the long trek home with their guest onboard. As far as first contacts went it had been a success with no fatalities or embarrassing blunders which was a relief for all involved. It had also opened up an opportunity for both sides, for the SGC to jump a couple of centuries ahead in weapons and basic starship technology to integrate with their limited Asgard systems, that alone would have made the entire Stargate programme pay for itself a million times over. But more importantly it had created new hope for those suffering from the Drakh plague, and while nobody knew if a cure would arrive there was at the bottom of that despair one tiny morsel of comfort, that one way or another, in one place or another, Earth would go on.


	9. Chapter 5 The Race Begins

**The Whitehouse, Washington DC**

**16th September 2004**

"This is moving way to fast." President Hayes expressed his anxiety. "Doesn't it feel fast to you?"

"Yes Mr President." His chief of staff, Erwin Rogers followed beside him as they stamped through the corridors of the venerable building. "Which is a good thing, we need to act quickly."

It was just a day since Generals Hammond and O'Neill had made their reports directly to the President identifying the ancient artefact and the alternate dimension beyond. He'd had a hard time grasping the idea at first, but then he'd met Michael Garibaldi and seen some of the small pieces of technology he'd brought along including a tiny energy weapon which could apparently burn through a Russian tank. After that President Hayes had listened very carefully to what he had to say.

"I still say its going too fast, there's hardly any time to think!" Hayes sighed. "Sometimes I think I should've gone for another job."

"Your approval rating is good Mr President." Rogers encouraged. "If we can get our allies to back this deal we can solve every problem we have regarding that series of issues we don't mention in public."

"You mean aliens?" Hayes said. "This is the Whitehouse, everyone knows already." He came to a halt outside the Oval office. "If they can deliver what they're promising, a full planetary protection screen made up of giant cannons, well I guess it's worth the risk."

"On that note one of our intelligence guys called Atwood has a report for you when we're done. "Rogers said sceptically. "He wants funding to research alleged new species of humans living in our society."

"Oh great, more fun." Hayes shook his head. "Did the last president deal with this? How did he find time for that thing with the intern?"

"The Ambassadors are waiting sir." Rogers swiftly changed subjects and gestured for the door.

The Oval office was bathed in a warm glow, the fading light still bright enough so the President didn't need to use the electric lights of the office. Inside were four men of advancing years sat on the two couches in the centre of the office either side of the great seal woven into the carpet, they represented the UN security council and were looking both worried and annoyed at the sudden summoning to the Whitehouse.

"Sorry gentlemen," Hayes waved as he headed for his desk. "I know this is short notice but I think you'll agree this is a matter of utmost importance to us all." He sat behind the great wooden desk, a gift from Queen Victoria many decades before. "You gentlemen are all aware of the Stargate programme?"

The group nodded, it had been some years since America told of its programme and secured greater national cooperation. Since that time a number of governments had been briefed on the programme and had sent some of their brightest minds to join the Atlantis expedition, but the five nations of the security council were still considered the first to know of changes in official policy. Each of them had benefited in some way from the programme, with Russia and China taking technology from the programme to develop their own unique defences while Britain was working closely with the United States on developing Space based missiles and weapons. The French had their own programmes, but were mainly focused on creating an effective Fusion reactor in company with a British and German team.

"Recently we made contact with another race of humans." Hayes worded the announcement carefully. "They are more advanced than us in many ways and have offered to give us systems to defend our world against all enemies."

"Really? And how do they propose to do that?" The British ambassador raised an eyebrow.

"By giving us orbital weapons platforms with the firepower to destroy any ship likely to threaten us."

"Orbital weapons?" the Chinese representative narrowed his gaze. "I do not like the idea of such weapons over my country."

"They will be pointing outwards." Hayes said. "And they will be under your control."

"Will we get equal numbers of these weapons?" the Frenchman wondered.

"You'll get enough to protect your country." Hayes said. "So I guess bigger countries will get more."

"Well, I have to raise some concerns about that." The British ambassador said. "Seems rather unfair."

"This is a global initiative meant to protect humanity as a whole, besides the deal also includes weapons and engine tech which could help balance the smaller countries."

"What do you mean balance?" the Russian added. "You mean they have something we don't?"

"No Mr Ambassador, that isn't what I meant." Hayes tried to calm him down. "What I mean is no one group will have an unfair advantage."

"The British government has contributed a great deal to the programme." Its ambassador said. "By padding out and extending our development of fighter and warship systems we have given billions to the 302 and 303 programmes, not to mention sending Edinburghs best biologist and the Navy's smartest technician to the far side of the universe. We want what is best for all of us, but too often the smaller countries of the world are sidelined in global affairs."

"Exactly, we want as many weapons as the other countries!" The French ambassador demanded.

"Well, practically…" The British ambassador started to try and correct his French colleague, but was in turn interrupted.

"And we demand enough weapons to protect our country from any aggressor!" the Chinese representative spat.

"No one is going to be short changed!" Hayes raised his voice. "But there's more beside technology, there's a price tag."

"Oh, of course there is." The Russian grinned. "What is it this time?"

"In exchange for technology, the people we have contacted need us to help them find a cure for a plague afflicting their planet."

"A Plague?" the Russian said. "Any threat to us?"

"We have precautions in place." Hayes said. "we'll be conducting all research at the Atlantis station, if we agree to do so."

"We still need to resolve how the technology will be distributed." The Frenchman said.

"We do," answered the Briton. "But we can discuss the details after we give help as research is under way."

"You're in favour then?" Hayes asked for confirmation.

"I'd like more details, but provisionally… yes, Britain will help."

"So will we." The French ambassador said. "But again, we will require more details on the technology and its distribution."

"Russia has always supported the Stargate programme, we support this too."

The four men now all looked at the Chinese representative. He frowned and looked to his feet before addressing them.

"We are with you, but with the same conditions as my colleagues have stated."

"That's fine." Hayes grinned happily. "I'll provide a full list of what we're been offered, plus some negotiable extras." He stood and headed for the door. "My secretary will be along in a moment with the details, we did the right thing today, the good thing. Its rare we can say that and mean it. Thanks."

Hayes left the room and picked up the first phone he came to. "Erwin? Get onto General Hammond, tell him it's a go."

_**Daedalus**_

"General O'Neill, we have confirmation." Colonel Caldwell reported. "The security council permanent members have agreed to back the initiative."

"They agreed?" O'Neill sounded disappointed. "I owe Carter ten bucks."

"We're in position to make the crossing to the alternate dimension sir." Caldwell began fastening his seatbelt, even though O'Neill was ranking officer the ship was still technically Caldwells command and he occupied the central chair.

"Alright, I've been wanting to try this for all of two hours." O'Neill took a chair by the side of the bridge. "Proceed when ready."

O'Neill would be travelling on the _Daedalus_ without his other team mates, they had other duties back on Earth sorting through the data Mr Garibaldi had provided and providing a report to the President on the pros and cons of the deal. So far it was all positive.

"One final message sir." Major Foster took the long range call. "Mr Garibaldi says he owes President Sheridan ten credits, he'll know what that means."

O'Neill smiled, Garibaldi must have made the same bet he had. "Acknowledge that signal, then take us through."

He braced himself, travel through a normal Stargate was second nature to him by now, but he couldn't help but feel a little apprehension as the _Daedalus_ activated its Asgard sensors and triggered the oval ring. A rippling surface flashed across its centre much like a Stargate giving O'Neill a slight comfort in familiarity.

"Crossing event Horizon in three, two, one…" Foster read off, and then they were through. An instant of brightness and nausea assaulted the general but by the time he opened his eyes it was over. Space outside the forward windows looked the same as anywhere else he'd been and the gentle pulse of the ship, its engines and computers, continued to sound in the background.

"All systems nominal." Foster reported. "We're exactly where we are meant to be."

The point was emphasized by a pair of split wing fighters ghosting past the window, clearly recognizable as Earth Alliance vehicles.

"Open a channel to the _Excalibur_" Caldwell says. "Are they nearby?"

"Yes sir, getting response."

"I'll take it." O'Neill walked to the centre of the bridge. "President Sheridan, you hear me okay?"

"General O'Neill, what's happened?"

"Good news, the five most powerful nations will provisionally back finding a cure, which means we can start right away."

"That's excellent news, thank you General." Sheridan beamed. "It means a lot."

"Well the big space gun bribe probably had a lot to do with it, hard to resist."

"I knew they'd come round, Garibaldi owes me ten credits." Sheridan was still smiling. "So what can we expect to see?"

"We're starting the programme at our outpost on Atlantis, yes the actual lost city, very long story. Anyway they have a huge repository of knowledge on there so it gives us a chance of finding similar plagues to the one you have. If its been beaten before we could use that knowledge to try and beat this one."

"I see where you're going." Sheridan nodded. "I've got some people who would love to go and help, especially if its on Atlantis…"

"Long story Mr President, I'll tell you about it someday." O'Neill smiled. "In fact I've got some great stories, like…"

He was interrupted by a message on Sheridans side. "Hang on General, it's a distress call." The President turned to take the call. "the Drakh are heading for our prototype ship yards, the place where we built the _Victory_ and _Excalibur_."

"What defences do you have out there?" O'Neill asked with concern.

"Not enough, everything on patrol in that sector was diverted to Earth, there are maybe two _Whitestars_ that can be there in time." Sheridan cursed. "That's the only yard capable of handling the new ships, if it goes it'll be a year before we can start production again!"

"How far is it?"

"Nearly a days jump, the Drakh are arriving in less than an hour."

"Yeah, but our engines are pretty quick, in an hour we could travel hundreds of lightyears." O'Neill pointed out. "We could make it in time, maybe you can hitch a lift?"

"Me personally?"

"And your ship, we could try and tow you through hyperspace." O'Neill suggested. "Right?" he looked to Caldwell.

"Err…"

"Great, its settled." O'Neill clapped his hands. "Get your people ready, we'll contact you in a few minutes."

The channel closed and the General turned to his crew. "It can't be that hard."

"We've never tried it before sir." Caldwell explained. "It's pretty far fetched."

"Get Hermiod to sort it out, Carter would know what to do." O'Neill sighed. "Who's your science guy?"

"Doctor Lindsay Novak, I'm sure she'll be thrilled at the news."

"I'll bet." O'Neill grinned. "We haven't got long, the Asgard have done it before so make sure that grey dude doesn't try and weasel out of it."

It took a few minutes, most of which was filled with Hermiod's complaints, but finally the _Daedalus_ was prepared for the difficult operation.

"President Sheridan," O'Neill got back in touch. "We've got the plan worked out, basically we'll expand our hyperspace bubble thing so you can fit your ship within it, probably a couple of ships."

"How many?" Sheridan asked. "And how soon will we arrive?"

"Not as fast as one ship alone, but we might just beat the Drakh. We can take three or four ships, we're ready right now."

"Alright General, I'll have the strike forces form up."

Many of the ships that had fought in defence of Earth had taken heavy damage, only a few were still fully operational. From that group Sheridan quickly pulled together a fighting force centred on the _Excalibur_ including the _Warlock_ class _Enchantress_, the flowing form of the Minbari Warcruiser _Ilyr's Strength_, and the venerable _Agamemnon._ Alongside three _Whitestars_ which stayed close to the larger vessels they drew up around the _Daedalus_ and got as close as they could.

"So this will work, right?" O'Neill raised the question.

"Hermiod thinks so sir." Caldwell answered. "And the little fella's never wrong."

"I bet." O'Neill shrugged. "Okay then, lets make this happen. To infinity, and…. Sorry."

The crew moved in unison, activating a dozen systems and creating a low hum as the ships power generators wound up to full power. There was a notable increase in tension as Caldwell barked out his instructions, this would be a first for this ship and the idea of such a small vessel creating a pathway big enough for the huge ISA flagship was a little overpowering.

"Coordinates locked in." Foster reported. "All stations ready for jump."

"The hyperdrive is ready," Novak added from engineering. "We'll be monitoring field strength, if it looks like trouble we'll drop everyone safely and decelerate."

"We'll be using our inertial dampeners to cover the whole fleet." Caldwell said to O'Neill. "Its going to take a hell of a lot of power."

"We don't have far to go." O'Neill nodded. "We're in this now, we won't back out. Activate engines."

"Here goes nothing." Foster whispered, then pushed the hyperdrive controls to active.

000000000

_Whitestar 9_ ducked beneath the blue energy beam and returned fire, tearing a rent in an offensive looking Drakh cruiser. Robert Lockley commanded this ship, one of the first of its kind and with a list of battle honours as long as his arm. He was a Ranger, and as far as he was concerned that was all anyone needed to know about his skills and abilities. Merely passing the selection process showed him as individual of great courage and personal strength while his command of _Nine_ was verging on legendary. He'd seen it all, from Imperialistic Earth force destroyers to Thrall controlled Centauri cruisers. His greatest achievements were surviving the great battles of the Shadow war and supporting Ivanova against the modified Shadow destroyers of President Clark, where his ship was one of the few combat worthy enough to follow Sheridan all the way to Earth.

He had fought the Drakh and pursued their fleeing ships from the latest battle, and his path had led him to the hidden shipyards where the President had built his new battleships to protect the alliance. The yards themselves only had a simple interceptor grid, their secrecy being relied on for defence. When Lockley arrived hed seen two sister _Whitestars_ from nearby patrols preparing to defend the facility alongside the destroyer _Charon_. The _Omega_ class ship had been left by its crew who went to man the _Victory_ and _Excalibur_ taking the ships fighter wing with them. The ship yard technicians after sending the distress signal had shuttled over to crew the destroyer, each was intimately familiar with Earth force weapons and starship systems and were quite capable of running the destroyer as efficiently as her own crew. Unfortunately for all their knowledge they were not military and lacked training, so while the Destroyer fought efficiently its tactics were easily guessed by the Drakh who swiftly crippled the large vessel.

"More Drakh coming from the right." His Minbari first officer said calmly, she was a female warrior and a rare commodity among Rangers who tended to be religious caste. Taranen was different, she had spent much time studying with the Religious caste and had reached a state of virtual enlightenment allowing her to see the bigger picture. As a trainee ranger she had befriended Lockley and they had fought well together throughout the ships long career.

"Bring us around, fire on the biggest vessel." Lockley ordered. "Slow them down, we'll destroy them later."

He had no particular illusions about still being around for 'later,' his ship was badly outnumbered and it seemed likely they would all fall in defence of this place. Lockley accepted this, as a Ranger he did not fear death and if this was to be his last few moments so be it.

"Something else just arrived." Taranen reported. "It's a relief force! But I can't see where they came from." She said in glee and confusion.

"Doesn't matter, keep us fighting." He checked the sensors, a small fleet headed by the _Excalibur _herself was passing the shipyard and arming weapons. "Hooray for the cavalry." He remarked, then went back to his mission.

Sheridan quickly assessed the scene, the personality of the diplomat and president making way for the military officer re emerging from his past. The Drakh were assembled in large numbers, but as far as odds went he had faced worse. These Drakh had poisoned his home and tried to escape, he was determined not to let them get far.

"Order the _Charon_ to fall back and cover the yards." He ordered quickly. "Release the _Whitestars_ and _Daedalus_ to engage at will. The rest of us will drive straight through the middle."

The small fleet began to move into its parts, the _Excalibur, Enchantress_ and _Agamemnon_ passing the shipyards and locking onto the nearest cruisers while fighters streamed from their hanger decks and formed into strike squadrons. The light ships swept around and immediately began harassing the flanks of the Drakh force. Suddenly faced with a real threat the enemy began to change tactics and arrayed for a fleet battle.

"Colonel Caldwell." O'Neill announced. "Find a bad guy and shoot him."

"Yes General, Mr Miguel, you heard the order. Fire at will."

The _Daedalus_ pulled a tight and accelerated, its sudden burst of speed throwing off the aim of the Drakh gunners. The small cruiser launched a brace of Mark VIII while performing a high speed pass, while the missiles themselves were slow they were being fired from a vessel travelling at extreme speed lending them a similar velocity to a rail gun round. They picked up a slow moving Drakh cruiser each and blasted them to wrecks.

"Sweet." O'Neill grinned. "I can see that was money well spent."

A series of massive explosions dotted the fleet as the _Excalibur's_ escorting _Warlock_ fired its restocked missile batteries followed by scything red and green beams. The Human and Minbari ships and crews were working in unison to defeat the new threat and while O'Neill only knew the very basic history of the two races from Garibaldi he was encouraged to see aliens working with humans. The Drakh ships were individually a poor match for the allied ships, but their numbers were greater and they weren't going to retreat so easily.

"Squadron is moving to engage." Foster commented. "Our fighters are loaded up with Mark VII's, oughta be quite a light show."

Despite having never worked together before the Earth force pilots found a lot of their general tactics were understood by the USAF personnel flying the F-302 squadrons from _Daedalus_. With a few brief chats the Thunderbolt pilots took point and used their cannons, missiles and agility to blast a path through the escorting Drakh raiders, the powerful gatling pulse weapons having little trouble tearing through the relatively light ships while the USAF craft dodged past and brought their far larger nuclear weapons into range of the cruisers. With authorisation from Caldwell they fired a pinpoint attack and pulled a rapid escape, the Thunderbolts following their lead.

"I've never seen twenty enhanced nukes go off at once." O'Neill commented.

"It's a hell of a sight sir, but Major Foster, not too close to the scene."

"Aye sir, coming about."

The _Daedalus_ made a sweeping turn, shredding two raiders with its rail guns in the process and put its back to the upcoming Nuclear blasts. The volley of missiles ploughed into the centre of the fleet, exploding in direct contact with the cruisers to maximise damage to the vessels just in case their armour was greater than predicted. The precaution was unnecessary, each missile neatly annihilated its targeted ship, the Drakh vessels apparently unimpressed by the small missiles had ignored them and focused on the much more formidable looking _Excalibur_. In a second the Drakh ships had their core dissolved away in bright light, the few ships that survived on the edges of the multiple explosions would be easy pickings for Sheridan's group.

The F-302's now joined the final hunt, racing between radioactive debris and firing on Raiders. The Drakh vessels were much larger than the nimble 302's and it required concentrated fire from at least four fighters to make a difference. The cannons were fitted out with alternating rounds of trinium tipped shots designed for piercing and naquadah rounds designed to blast apart an opponents hull. The exotic bullets proved remarkably effective, the 302's swinging in close and peppering the drive fins of the raiders with close ranged fire. In union with the raw power of the Thunderbolt fighters they were able to bring down the Drakh light vessels while the _Whitestars_ dealt with larger threats.

The sudden and overwhelming use of nukes had ended the battle far quicker than either side really expected, and much to O'Neill and Sheridans relief losses had been relatively light.

"Well, its something to write in my diary." O'Neill quipped. "Today I saw the biggest bang ever."

"Wait until you see a Mark IX general." Caldwell grinned. "If we can get them to work, whew."

"Yeah, Carter went all misty eyed when she talked about them." O'Neill shrugged. "Wait, did we win?"

"The enemy is routing, _Whitestars_ are finishing them off." Foster said.

"The shipyards?" Caldwell checked.

"Minor damage, still seems fully operational."

"Cool." O'Neill grinned. "They can fix up the _Excalibur's_ sister and then build more."

"Recall our squadrons." Caldwell ordered. "I guess we should offer the President a lift home?"

00000000

"Tuvan." Alyt Shaleth spoke quietly. "Send a message to homeworld, inform them of our success."

"Our success? Do you mean the human success?"

"We share the victory, after all we are allies." Shaleth corrected giving his subordinate a withering stare. "Send the message."

Tuvan bowed in obedience and left the command deck, heading for a private communications station. Before raising fleet command, he sent a message to another group first.

"Shai Alyt Kathenn, I have encountered the secret human ship again."

From the headquarters of the Wind Sword clan Tuvan's master growled in acknowledgement. "Did you gather further data?"

"Yes Shai Alyt, I have been able to determine how it travels at such speed and the primitive but effective weapons it deploys. Worryingly the ship is capable of extreme speed in both normal space and hyperspace, it also mounts a shielding system possibly better than or own experiments. We should consider this unit a Threat to project D'Vost."

"So noted, send the data you have for consideration." Kathenn ordered. "You have done well, keep me informed."

"Yes Shai Alyt, D'Vost must soon come to fruition, and the humans will not stop it."

"Our government is growing weaker, more corrupted by the aliens." The Wind Sword leader intoned darkly. "This will not be allowed to continue. And if this ship is to stand in our way, well, it won't stand for long."

0000000000

**Earth, homeworld of the Earth Alliance.**

The return journey was much quicker with only the _Excalibur_ being pulled alongside the _Daedalus_ on the return trip, the other ships of the force remaining to secure the prototype shipyards from further attack. The effective use of nuclear weapons in the battle had raised a number of points with Sheridan, generally Earth force and other races avoided such destructive weapons in large numbers in case of accidents with only the new _Warlocks_ carrying a hefty Nuclear payload. Sheridan was beginning to think the policy might need changing.

"Dropping back to normal space." His helm officer reported, and in the next instant the _Excalibur_ was home, Earth still ringed by damaged ships and debris.

"I'll be in the conference room making a call. Let me know if anything else shows up, at this rate I'm expecting the second coming by the end of the week."

He left the bridge and sealed the door behind him. "Computer, open a private channel to Tuzenore, Alliance headquarters."

He waited patiently for a few moments, then was greatly relieved to see Delenn answer his message.

"John, are you alright?"

"Just fine, been chaos out here but its slowly getting back into shape."

"I've been reading the reports from the Rangers, who are your new friends."

"It's a long story, I'll be heading back on the first _Whitestar_ to address the ISA council and try to set up an aid package for Earth."

Delenn nodded slowly. "Is it as bad as they say?"

"Probably worse." Sheridan sighed. "But we have a chance, a couple of doors have opened for us and we'll be getting help."

"You're new friends?" Delenn pondered. "John, what are you hiding?"

"Can I ever hide anything from you?" he grinned despite himself. "Are you telepathic in some way?"

"No, you're just as easy to read as an open book written in bold red letters." His wife smiled. "Now tell me."

"They are humans from another reality, we found a gate that led through to their home, a perfect copy of Earth but in a different universe. Incredible really."

"Most fascinating." Delenn agreed. "Creation is always surprising us. What did they offer?"

"They'll help with a cure, technically they are a long way behind us but they've got access to some really neat toys, plus a lost city, so it'll help. Meanwhile we'll devote the resources of the ISA back here to doing the same thing."

"Both places working together." Delenn smiled. "That is reassuring. You want to go with them don't you?"

"I never said…" Sheridan stuttered.

"Open. Book." Delenn interrupted firmly. "This is a great adventure and you want to go there, and one day you should but not today."

"You're right, as usual." He smiled. "My place is here with the Alliance, but I'll need to send some teams to help the research, and to protect the results."

"I agree, it is vital we protect the information." Delenn thought. "You should send your best assets to carry out this task."

"I was going to lead the _Excalibur_ through the gate." The President said. "Then have Captain Anderson use the _Victory_ to search for a cure here with the Rangers."

"And so you should, but you cannot command the _Excalibur_ no matter how much your heart desires it."

"I know, it'll be the adventure of a lifetime."

"We've already had more than sufficient adventures." She said softly. "Stop hogging the fun, let someone else have this mission. Do you know anyone?"

"I'll place some calls to Earth force command, I'm sure they'll recommend a good Captain and staff."

"A whole new universe to explore." Delenn said with a hint of wonder. "And fellow humans to meet, it is a small miracle and we will have time to investigate. The universe gives us what we need when we need it, this is a great opportunity and a great hope. One which will remain for us to explore in the future."

"It might be just what we need." He agreed. "I'll head back."

"Don't take too long, I'll call the leaders of the Alliance together to make an emergency decision. We will not allow a repeat of the Markab tragedy. I'll be waiting."

"I'll be there." He smiled to her, then ended the message. She was always right, his days of hopping stars were over and he had greater responsibilities to the alliance as a whole. This mission would be someone elses, he'd saved Earth and galactic civilization plenty of times in the past and now he had to lead them forward. Hopefully Earth could find the right Captain for the job.


	10. Chapter 5 Continued

Chapter 5 Continued

United States Battle Cruiser _Daedalus_

Earth orbit, Earth Alliance.

"They want to what?" Col. Caldwell asked in surprise as the elevator doors parted with their metallic whine allowing both men to step into the corridor.

"A little thank you from President Sheridan." Gen O'Neill responded as both men departed the elevator. "Basically Earth Force wants to personally grant our request after that little save at the shipyards." O'Neill enthused walking next to Co. Caldwell.

"A refit?" Caldwell asked bluntly. When?"

"As soon as we're able." O'Neill shrugged looking at his watch. "Which is as soon as possible."

"General." Col. Caldwell began "Is it wise to grant the Alliance access to the _Daedalus_?" Caldwell asked cautiously. Though the Alliance and the SGC had gotten off to a great start by SGC standards Caldwell wasn't comfortable with the idea of granting them full access to the _Daedalus_, access that would be needed for the kind of refit General O'Neill was proposing.

"Yeah I thought about that too." O'Neill replied, aware of Caldwell's concern. "But they need our help if they're to stop the plague, so I don't think they'll try any funny stuff." O'Neill answered as they made a turn in the corridor.

"I still don't feel comfortable with this." Caldwell admitted.

"Well don't worry about that." O'Neill stated. "Once I get back I'll have SG-3 and SG-7 help post security in the more vital areas of the ship, particularly the areas involving the Asgard technology."

"I'm sure that'll make Hermiod more comfortable." Caldwell reasoned. Though he doubted it. "Anything else I should be aware of General?"

"Yeah apparently we're all heroes." O'Neill replied sheepishly.

"Sir?" Caldwell asked slightly confused.

"The news service on this side of the rift, an ISN has been asking questions." O'Neill began. "Seems they got a good look at the _Daedalus_ in action and have been hounding Earth Force ever since." The General informed.

"That could create complications sir." Caldwell responded. As the veteran of several wars on his Earth Col. Caldwell was not a particular fan of the Media. His life having taken a direction that required absolute secrecy from even the people who meant the most to him. And it was the job of the Media to expose those secrets for the world to see.

"Yeah it could." O'Neill began. "But thankfully not for us. Its Earth Force they're hounding, so far they don't know about the Dimensional gate or our true origins, so we're in the clear for now."

"If they're anything like the media back home they're not going to give up until they have the full story." Caldwell countered.

"True." O'Neill acknowledged "We'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it."

Both Men arrived in Engineering to find Dr. Lindsey Novak and Hermiod hard at work at their stations. On the master display screen floated a view of the Daedalus, but as Col. Caldwell approached he could make out small modifications to the ships hull.

"Col. Caldwell! General O'Neill." Dr. Novak exclaimed, startled by their sudden arrival.

"Doctor, Hermiod." Col. Caldwell said by way greeting the two scientists. "I've take it you both have had a chance to study the proposed modifications to the _Daedalus_?"

"We were going over the Modifications now Colonel." Novak replied as she focused the viewer onto a section of the Daedalus hull next to it a display of a small cannon floated next to the image of _Daedalus_ hull. "This is the interceptor grid Colonel." Novak began. "They'll be placed in several key areas of the ship to cover all arcs of the ship from incoming fire; we're looking at 8 in total. Essentially they're smaller versions of the plasma/pulse weapons with high rates of fire." She explained while zooming in to a diagram of an interceptor cannon. "They have special targeting scanners to allow them to track and intercept incoming energy bolts; if we can tie them in with our CIWS batteries we can drastically improve our close in defense capabilities. Unfortunately the interceptors are incapable of intercepting beam weapons such as lasers that travel at the speed of light, but since the Goa'uld don't use any form of beam weaponry that we know of we should be good."

'Nice!" O'Neill said with the enthusiasm of a kid at Christmas, however it didn't take long for the other shoe to drop.

"With the current capabilities of the ships targeting scanners we will only be able to track and intercept 35 of all incoming fire directed at the ship." Hermiod jumped in. "in Order to improve the rate of interception we will have to tie in the Asgard targeting scanners with the CIWIS/Interceptor network which will improve the rate of interception significantly."

"How much more are we talking about?" Col. Caldwell asked?

"By as much as a 50 improvement Colonel." Hermiod reported as he brought up images of the Battle over Earth. On the Screen _Omega_ and _Warlock_ ships could be seen engaging their Drahk antagonists, when the Drahk returned fire the Interceptor grids on the respective ships came to life knocking down a considerable amount of fire directed at them. Although the show was impressive everyone quickly noticed that the interceptor grid on the newer _Warlock's_ proved superior to the EA's previous models.

"I have studied the data recorded from the battle over Earth we participated in. I have been able to calculate that the ships belonging to the Earth Alliance were able to intercept as much as 60 of enemy fire directed at them. However the Newer _Warlock_ class destroyers demonstrated a noticeable improvement in capabilities by as much as 10."

"Meaning?" O'Neill prodded.

"Meaning, General." Hermiod stated in an exasperated tone of voice "that while crude in nature the interceptor grid has demonstrated to be a most effective form of defense. While inferior to Asgard shield emitters it would serve to compliment the ships defensive capabilities. I have already sent a report to the Asgard High Council with a particular note on the interceptor grid attached in the report; I can tell you it is generating great interest."

"Hermiod is that respect I hear in your voice?" Novak quipped at Hermiod's obvious discomfort." I thought we were too primitive to have anything the Asgard could want."

The Asgard brought his full attention to the doctor before responding. "While that is most often true, Part of my mandate for serving aboard _Daedalus_ was to be on the lookout for 'Novel ideas' that could prove beneficial for the Asgard. In the past your unique approach to complex problems has yielded considerable success, I would be remiss in my duties to ignore such an obvious example of that kind of thinking...the exchange program between our two peoples was as much to help us as it was to help you."

"Cool." O'Neill responded absently. "So what other little goodies are we getting?"

Novak's hands flew across her console bringing up a picture of a large dual Rail gun. "This is a scaled down version of the 406/240 Volcano Rail Gun…

"Scaled down?" Caldwell asked interrupting Novak.

"Yes sir." Novak responded. "I ciphered through the data available on them and apparently they were originally designed for the _Warlock_ class destroyers."

"Making them a little big for the _Daedalus_." O'Neill surmised from the limited information he knew about the Mammoth ships.

"Essentially sir." Novak confirmed. "With Hermiod's help we've been able to scale them down while improving on their stopping power."

At hearing that particular revelation both O'Neill and Caldwell turned their stunned eyes to Hermiod. Improving on the interceptor grid was one thing, but when it came to weapons technology the Asgard had been hesitant to assist Earth, which made the revelation of Hermiod's active help with the new weapons system that much more surprising.

"Hermiod." O'Neill stammered slightly "I thought the Asgard weren't going to help us with weapons technology?"

"Concerning Asgard weaponry you would be correct O'Neill, however the Rail Guns are not Asgard technology and there is nothing in my mandate saying I cannot improve upon existing human weapons technology.

"Sweet!" O'Neill replied after several moments of shocked silence. "Is that all?" Gen. O'Neill replied after another awkward moment of silence.

"How do improved missiles sound sir?" Novak began "The Earth Alliance uses advanced spatial missiles for ship to ship engagements, as well as anti fighter roles. The engines on these missiles are considerably faster than the Chemical Rocket engines on our current generation of space missiles. Not to mention they have better guidance systems." Novak reported before her face took on a disappointed look. "Unfortunately that's about as much as we can do on such a short time table. The Earth Alliance was also going to fit us with an E-WEB system but that would require a major overhaul to implement the system, in addition to improved launching tubes for our VLS system using magnetic launchers instead of the high pressure system used by our current VLS."

"How long will the refit take?" Col. Caldwell asked.

"Well sir the EA has considerable resources at their disposal, Garbaldi/Edgars industry is prepping a yard now in Mars orbit, from what they told me provided there aren't any problems, Start to finish should be a little over a week."

"A Week!" Both me responded in unison.

"They've been at this kind of thing for a lot longer than we have sir." Novak smiled. 'It probably would have taken us 2 months for that kind of refit. Additionally they're studying the idea of mounting Starfury engines and weapons on the F-302 but I don't have any up to date info on that."

"You mean those big mean looking guns we saw on those..." O'Neill looked suddenly confused for a moment "What were they called again?"

"Thunderbolt Starfuries Sir." Novak answered with that annoying smile of hers.

"Yes!That's the one!" O'Neill replied happily "So the 302's are getting those big guns?" O'Neill asked hopefully.

Novak's smile faded as she bit her lower lib not knowing how she was going to break the news to the General. Realizing that Gen. O'Neill was looking at her expectantly she decided blunt honesty was probably the best approach. "The Gatlin Pulse Cannons from the ThunderBolt is too large to mount on the F-302 General." Novak Began "The Thunderbolt is twice the size of a 302, but the Alliance thinks they can mount the Pulse cannons from their Aurora Starfuries. They're about the same size as the 20mm cannons mounted on the F-302."

O'Neill's stared blankly at her for a few moments before responding "So No big gun?" he asked disappointedly.

"More like two slightly smaller ones General." Novak replied sheepishly.

"Rats!" O'Neill cursed snapping his fingers before bringing his attention back to Novak. "Novak make a note for area 51." O'Neill began. "I want Big honking pulse cannons on the next generation of fighters!" O'Neill stated in his half joking half serious tone of voice.

"Yes sir!" Novak respond, furiously scribbling in a note pad that somehow appeared in her hand. For his part Col. Caldwell did his best to suppress his laughter. The Generals antics were well known throughout the SGC but for someone like Novak who hadn't spent much time around the General she tended to take him a little too seriously.

"Oh good." O'Neill quipped. "Anything else?"

"Yes sir one other thing." Novak replied putting her pad down returning attention to her console. On the master display screen a series of wavelengths formed one on top of the other. Novak highlighted one particular wavelength then zoomed in on it until it filled the entire screen.

"We've finished analyzing the sensor data from the Device, Its so far beyond anything I've ever seen or even heard about I couldn't even begin to tell you how it does what it does, but in layman's terms think of it as a Stargate through realities rather than space, I can't be sure exactly; but I believe its locked to this reality alone. Meaning the device won't jump to another reality." Novak began for her audience. "This is one of the frequencies the device is sensitive too, it just so happens its one of the same frequencies that the _Deadalus_ scan on." Novak said before bringing up the first picture of the multiple wave lengths. "From what I can tell the device is sensitive to a variety of emissions and not all of them subspace based." She said pointing to one of the frequencies "That one right there is Tachyon based.

"Meaning?" Col. Caldwell prodded.

"Meaning, Colonel. That triggering the device is not unique to _Daedalus_, all anyone would have to do is simply retool their scanners to the correct frequency and Presto!" Novak exclaimed clapping her hands together.

"Good work Doctor." Caldwell praised. "is there anything else we should be aware of?"

"That about covers it sir." replied looking up from her console. "Everything else will be in the report."

"I want the report by the end of the Day doctor." Col. Caldwell ordered.

"You'll have it by this afternoon sir." Novak responded confidently.

General O'Neill and Colonel Caldwell turned to leave engineering they were just outside the door before Col. Caldwell stopped and turned back towards engineering.

"Hermiod." the Colonel Called out.

"Yes Colonel?" the Asgard responded looking up from his console.

"Well done." Col. Caldwell said with a slight nod of head. Much to his surprise Hermiod returned the gesture before the Colonel departed Engineering. Once in the Corridor O'Neill's curiosity got the better of him.

"What was all that about?" Gen. O'Neill asked.

"A beginning, hopefully." Caldwell replied.

"I take it the little grey guy's been a pain in the ass." "O'Neill surmised

Col. Caldwell gave General O'Neill a knowing look "We've had our differences in opinion." Caldwell responded delicately. "But the Little grey guy has come through for us in a pinch, so long as he continues to do so I can tolerate the more colorful aspects of his personality." Caldwell said as both men continued strolling through the ships corridor.

"Hmmmm." O'Neill responded before another thought occurred to him. "Before I got off the horn with President Sheridan he made a small request on behalf of the _Excalibur_ crew." O'Neill started catching Col. Caldwell's interest. "It seems the Earth Alliance fighter jocks were impressed with the way our guys handled themselves back there, they've invited us to participate in some training exercises on Mars. In addition I'm to meet with a Senator RedWave and the Crew for the Mission to our side of the Rift." O'Neill continued as they passed several personnel in the corridor.

"I was under the impression we were going to work out a treaty before allowing the ISA into our side of the Rift?" Caldwell asked confused and slightly alarmed. Though he like President Sheridan and the Alliance personnel he'd met to date it didn't mean he trusted them...yet, that would only come in time and Col. Caldwell was military to the core, trust in outsiders didn't come easily and he felt things were progressing a little too fast for his taste.

"Already on it." O'Neill responded nonchalantly as both men reached the elevator door, as the doors closed with their metallic whine General O'Neill with a bemused expression on his face turned to look at the slightly uncomfortable Col. Caldwell and asked. "Colonel have you ever heard of a place called Babylon 5?"


	11. Chapter 5 part 3

**3 Weeks Later. USAF _Daedalus_**

**Garabaldi/Edgars industry shipyard in orbit of Syrium Plenum Mars.**

Mars. Named after the God of war in Roman Mythology and Col. Caldwell thought. aptly named as he studied the rust red hue of the planet that hung majestically in the Bridge's main view port dominating the 'Horizon'. Caldwell could hardly suppress the smile that crept across his face as he studied the red planet it all its glory. _Ironic_ he thought, _for so many years we were traveling to the most distant planets in our galaxy yet our closest neighbor remained out of reach_. All of that of course had changed with _Prometheus_; a true testament of human stubbornness and drive which opened the door to the galaxy in ways the Stargate couldn't. But standing here and seeing the overwhelming view of the red planet brought it all into sharp focus, the Impossible had become possible.

Despite the initial enthusiasm that the _Daedalus_ could be refitted in such a short time; problems immediately cropped for the teams assigned to refit the small ship. For one the Software used by both systems had proved incompatible and new targeting parameters and algorithms had to be written. Then there were issues with integrating the Interceptors themselves which had taken almost a week to solve, and now the biggest problems to rear its ugly head was integrating the Asgard targeting scanners INTO the Interceptor/CIWIS grid THEN have both systems work in sync.

Despite what many people thought; Technology this advanced wasn't just plug and play, aspects of the technologies the crew were trying to integrate into the tiny warship were proving temperamental, especially when trying to work with the more advanced and completely unfamiliar Asgard Systems. Systems that had already been modified to work with the less advanced SGC systems. It was the most difficult and frustrating work that either the _Daedalus_ crew or their EA counterparts had ever had the displeasure of doing.

However it wasn't all bad; Work modifying the F-302's had progressed far more smoothly although a few snags had cropped up there too. It was perhaps the fastest merger of two completely different tech bases that Caldwell could ever think of. In fact the F-302s were undergoing their first day of rigorous testing in the Martian Atmosphere with the Thunderbolt Starfuries acting as Guardian Angels for support.

So far it had been a spectacular success, but Caldwell reasoned, that was mainly due to the fact that both systems were tried and true technologies rather than experimental systems in need of rigorous testing. Earth force was on a War Footing and Merging technologies like the 302 and the Starfury would ordinarily have taken years instead of weeks, but Earth was on Borrowed time and didn't have years. Caldwell was skeptical about the whole thing. Having been a pilot himself Caldwell knew how temperamental planes could be to even the smallest changes, but the F-302 was getting an entire new engine and weapons system as well as a major retooling of her power plant which hardly constituted as minor changes.

The fact that the birds seemed to be taking well to the new systems spoke immensely of their modular design. He just hoped there weren't any repercussions his pilots would have to pay for with their lives. Another spectacular success had been the cross training program between the Air force and Earth Force fighter pilots. Though great in their own right Caldwell could immediately see a vast improvement in their performance, having been made that much better working alongside their EA counterparts.

"Col. Caldwell Sir?" Major Foster asked waking the Colonel from his revere.

"Yes Foster." Caldwell replied stepping away from the main view port to stand beside his XO and Helmsman.

"The status report you asked for." Major Foster began. "They're still behind schedule." Foster double checked the report in her hand. "Novak says the Asgard systems are proving more difficult than anticipated. Hermiod countered that it's the crude and inferior Earth Alliance software package that's causing all the problems. The yardmaster is confident we'll meet the extended time table despite this most recent setback, alpha group will be back from their small shore leave tomorrow morning, And it seems Novak and Hermiod are about to kill each other…again." Major Foster reported with a growing smirk on her face.

"Business as usual then?" Caldwell replied in good humor.

"Pretty much sir." Foster replied in the same good humor.

"Speaking of which." Colonel Caldwell said as he folded his arms across his chest as he leaned against Foster's station. "I thought you were going to take Novak to the surface and unwind?" the Colonel asked. "What happened?"

"What didn't happen?" Foster blurted out. "We 'were' relaxing and otherwise enjoying the surreal environment of Mars taking in the sites, shopping, the usual things we ladies do." Foster Began. "But you know, Novak is a skittish person, it doesn't take much to get her stressed. First we got stuck in an elevator with an alien called a Pak'Mar'A. The stench was bad enough to almost make me loose my lunch, which she did...much to the Pak'Mar'A's delight." Foster said growing slightly ill at the memory. "Next we took a tour to see some of the historical sites on Mars only to have the shuttle make an emergency landing out in the middle of no where when its engines failed."

"I remember seeing the news about that." Caldwell admitted. Thank God you two are alright." Caldwell said with a genuine relief.

Foster closed her eyes and clenched her teeth as she recalled the frustration of that incident. "The Landing wasn't that bad sir." She began calmly. "I've gone through worse in my time, but to some easily excitable civilians and an overbearing news crew looking for the next big scoop I suppose it would constitute a crash landing. A transport was on its way to pick us up when Novak suddenly got the idea in her head she could fix the Transport's engines. Five hours later she was still swearing she could fix it." Fostered sighed. "You know they still can't make heads or tails of what she did to the engines?"

Later on that night while we were at a bar things were going nice and quite and we were having a good time relaxing and taking in the scenery. Then we were approached by two aliens which I later learned were called Narns who said they would like to 'sample some of our genetic material.' Now I know a lame pickup line when I hear one but Novak who by this time was a little tipsy thought they were talking about Biology! I tried to send her some subtle hints it was different kind of biology they were referring too but the poor girl was just too far gone. Then one of the Narns made the mistake of offering a 'Nice price' and Novak freaked. She kicked the first guy square in the groin then kneed the second guy in his pouch all while screaming she wasn't some kind of cheap whore. After that she bolted for the door, by the time I got outside the club to try and calm her down she was half way down the street and showed no signs of slowing down."

"I'm sorry I asked." Col. Caldwell said, feeling sympathy for the two women.

"I didn't know she could run that fast, And where did she learn to kick like that?" Foster asked clearly impressed with what she had seen.

"She ran track in high school, as for the kicking I think she picked that up from Teal'c when he was teaching martial arts at the base." Caldwell responded.

"Well sir I've made a mental note to never piss her off when she's drunk." Foster replied with a laugh.

"I can see what you mean; looking at her you'd never suspect that she's-"

"SHIT!" a loud curse echoed across the bridge instantly grabbing everyone's attention. Col. Caldwell knew no one on his crew would let an outburst unless something was wrong. Turning to face a very flustered looking Lt. Miguel Caldwell frowned wondering what would get his weapons officer so flustered. "What's wrong lieutenant."

"My sensor feed and fire control systems are down...again!"

"That's the third time this week!" Major foster replied beating Col. Caldwell in stating the obvious.

"Novak what's going on with the Fire control system?" Caldwell asked tapping his earpiece.

"_I'm sorry about that Colonel we're tracking down the problem now, I think it's a problem with the data linking from the interceptor tracking system_." Novak said frustrated into his earpiece.

"Why would that affect my fire control systems?" Lt. Miguel asked exasperatedly.

"_Because they're all networked together._" Novak responded. "_When one acts up it causes problems for the rest. These systems are all interconnected for maximum effectiveness_."

"Doctor this ship is scheduled to make the run to Atlantis within 2 weeks; I need to know that the Daedalus will be in top form by then." Col. Caldwell stated.

"_The Ship will be ready for testing by the end of the week Colonel_." Novak Responded "_This is the last problem that seems to have come up and it shouldn't take too long to fix_."

"Yeah right." Miguel grunted quietly. "She said the same thing last week."

"Understood doctor, do what you can Caldwell out." Col. Caldwell ended the link.

"This refit is proving to be more difficult than I would have preferred." Col. Caldwell began. "We're just going to have to bite the bullet and deal with these problems as they arise."

"Another shakedown in less than 3 months." Foster observed sourly for the crowd "What _fun_."

"I don't like it any more than you major but it has to be done before our run to Atlantis."

"Sir what about the follow on ships of the _Daedalus_ class?" Lt. Miguel spoke up.

"They're halting construction of _Odyssey, Argoand Nemesis_ so the new technologies we've acquired can be integrated into their designs." Caldwell answered. "Pulse/Laser Cannons, heavy rail Guns; Integrated Shield/Interceptor/E-WEB grid, a new magnetic launching system as well as the improved missiles, the works." Caldwell answered. "Unfortunately construction time will take considerably longer for each bird due to the delays, and don't even get started on the Cost overruns. It's enough to make the guys on the appropriations committee have kittens."

"Col. Caldwell sir?" an Air Force tech manning the communications station to the left of Fosters station spoke up.

"What is it?" Col. Caldwell said moving to stand beside her.

"We are receiving a message from Earth Force Command." She said, still listening in to her ear piece, after a few moments she looked up towards the Col. "They say they've received an urgent communiqué from our side of the rift."

"Route it to my terminal." Col. Caldwell ordered leaving her side and taking his chair. The Colonel brought the small LCD screen punching a few commands into the interface on the armrest of his chair. After a brief second the message scrolled across his screen.

Col. Caldwell read the message without displaying any outward emotion for several minutes then at one point his face seemed to drain of all color. "My God." He whispered to himself.

"Sir?" Major Foster inquired having heard him as she moved to his side.

Col. Caldwell stared ahead at the forward viewport for several seconds before speaking up. "We just go word from back home." Col. Caldwell began for both his officers as he lifted himself from his chair to face them. "Atlantis Base managed to send off a distress call. The Wraith a powerful alien race in the Pegasus galaxy are on their way to take the city, they'll be at Atlantis in a little over a week and our people don't have the means to fend them off." Col. Caldwell knew he had to shift things into high gear to get _Daedalus_ ready for her inevitable deployment. "Novak this is Col. Caldwell." The Colonel, said into the link.

"_Go Ahead Colonel_." Novak replied distractedly.

"Novak I need you to speed up this refit as fast as you can, ASAP." The Col. responded.

"_Sir_ _we're going to need a week to see if all the new systems check out_." Novak countered.

"We don't have week Doctor, we've been given till the end of tomorrow to be ready then we head back to our side of the rift." Caldwell said relaying the news. "Don't argue Doctor Novak just get it done."

"What's wrong sir?" Novak asked catching his tone of voice. "What's changed?"

Colonel Caldwell had to bite back anfrustrated retort; Lindsey Novak wasn't military and wasn't accustomed to blindly taking orders, despite her nervous nature she often spoke her mind much to the Colonels annoyance, however Col. Caldwell needed her focused on her job to get the Daedalus ready for combat. Reluctantly Col. Caldwell decided to tell her so she would grasp the enormity of the situation. "Doctor, Atlantis is Under Siege."


	12. Chapter 5 part 4

**Sol system, Earth Alliance space. **

Slowly things were returning to normal, at least on the surface. The innumerable wrecks and detritus of battle had all but disappeared either to be scrapped in the case of Earth ships or returned to their respective governments in regards to the other Interstellar Alliance vessels. Amidst those hulks were a handful of Drakh vessels which had avoided the destruction of the cloud and had instead fallen to the defence grid. Those fragments were being rushed to Mars where a temporary headquarters was being set up until Earth Dome got itself back in operation.

It had taken weeks, but from orbit Earth now looked completely normal, but it was nothing more than a mask hiding the grim truth. Earth was doomed and the best and brightest members of the Alliance, even the advanced Minbari geneticists and and Gaim biological shapers had so far offered nothing more than empty glances when asked about the Drakh plague. The planet remained under quarantine and although the great battle fleet had returned to its duties the Earth Alliance was officially at war and the increased military presence in orbit was a silent announcement of the fleets eagerness to do battle, to just do something.

"Captain?" a voice inquired. "Captain Ivanova?"

She brought her mind back to the task at hand. Looking up from her small desk at the rear of the bridge surrounded by consoles she saw Commander Morton waiting for her attention. "Yes Commander." She said quietly.

"The last of the work crews have finished Ma'am." He stated. "We're fully combat capable."

"Very good Commander, did we get the replacement pilots?"

"Yes Captain, we've taken on the _Hecate_ survivors, we're slightly over on our air wing but we've got the space."

"Good, signal our readiness to fleet command and lets hope they've got some orders for us."

The _EAS Titans_ had taken significant damage defending Earth and under normal circumstances the ship would have required a full overhaul and months in dock, instead Earth Force material command had simply stripped the wrecked or heavily damaged ships in orbit and grafted the parts directly onto the more able warships. The _Titans_ was hauling particle cannons from the _Necromancer_, fighters and armour from the _Hecate_ and turrets from the _Ariadne_. Along with the _Merlin_ which had similarly benefited from its sisters ill fortune and a group of _Omega's_ the forces in orbit were being referred to as 'The Cannibal fleet' or to Ivanova's preference 'The Headhunters' which in her opinion sounded much more dangerous.

"Captain, have you heard anything more about what we'll be doing now we're battle ready?" Morton wondered.

"Not yet Commander, when I know you will." Ivanova said plainly. "But most ships have been assigned patrol or guard stations, we haven't which makes me thing Earth central might have something special lined up for us."

"A bit of Drakh hunting?" Morton allowed a wicked grin.

"If we can find them." Ivanova sighed. "Our entire exploration force has been tracking the ones that got away, we've had Rangers hunting them, League ships, even the Minbari have been scouring space but so far nothing. Its like they've just vanished."

"They have to have a base somewhere, a staging post."

"Probably, but it's a big galaxy and if they're hidden on a former Shadow planet it might be a long time before we locate them."

Morton grimaced. "Well they better hide, because if we ever do find them…"

"I'm right there with you." Ivanova said coldly. "Earth force has never wiped out a whole planet before, not even Clark authorised that. But I tell you right now that if I'm in orbit of a Drakh settlement… well, you know what they say about payback? I'm the bitch."

Morton snapped to attention then returned to his duties. Ivanova knew the whole crew had that same need to do something, Earth had been ravaged and it was beyond anyone's scope to fix the problem, at least right now, but if they could find the Drakh base they could at least share a bit of the hurt.

She examined the status displays of her command, the _Titans_ was a patchwork of crippled vessels, some would say cannibal, some would call it Frankenstein's monster with its hull a multitude of colours indicating their different origins, light and dark covering the _Titans_ own blackened and pitted hull. But that wasn't how Ivanova saw it, her ship was not macabre it was a tapestry, it was a means of making sure that a part of those ships no longer able to fight would be there when the Drakh paid for their crimes. For each part of ship that the _Titans_ incorporated Ivanova felt part of that lost ships essence went along with her. A while ago she would have rolled her eyes at the concept of ships having 'souls' but her time on B5 had changed that opinion, the universe was a strange place. And if she had her way the Drakh would have no future in it.

00000000000000000

"Holy Crap." Was all he could manage. "I mean, wow Mr President."

Captain Matthew Gideon was used to surprises, as an explorer he'd seen his fair share of odd items, god like mysteries and one or two terrors that chilled the soul. However familiarity with surprises didn't make him immune.

"I wanted to show you myself." Sheridan smiled beside Gideon in the shuttle, the view through the window dominated by the silver dart of a revolutionary looking warship. "She's called _Excalibur_, second of her type and the best we have."

"I've never heard anything about this sort of project anywhere, how did you hide something so huge?" Gideon gasped.

"Two of them, the _Victory_ is currently hunting down Drakh until we can assign to its new mission, same one we'll be giving you." Sheridan explained.

Gideon looked quizzically at the President. "You really going to give me that ship?"

"I am." Sheridan nodded. "The Joint chiefs think you're the best man for the job. You know how to work first contacts, you have a good standard of diplomacy, and you aren't afraid to blow the hell out of something if it threatens you. This mission requires all those skills, because it's a good bet our enemies will try to stop you and we can't give you a fleet as cover." Sheridan spoke bluntly. "Most of the time it'll be just you and this ship, so we've put together the best crew we can from across the fleet."

"Well that's fine, but I want final say on them, I've got to put my life in their hands."

"Fair enough."

"And I want my current first officer." Gideon said firmly.

"We've already selected the best XO in Earth Force, Commander…"

"Mr President, you want the best out of that ship and me, then I have to take Lieutenant Matheson, no arguments. He can see what I'm planning before even I do, and in a crisis that's what I need."

"I hear he's a telepath." Sheridan cautioned. "After the fall of Psicorps there's a lot of bad feeling among people about teeps."

"Which means precisely nothing to me." Gideon said. "He's the best officer in the fleet whatever your reports say, and I want him onboard."

Sheridan felt a thin smile, Gideon was known as a trouble maker, the sort of man who didn't back down or give up if he believed in his position. In the regular navy it had caused all kinds of trouble and made sure he ended up exploring the rim instead of commanding a _Warlock_ or a carrier group, and it would likely prevent him reaching General except in a crisis. Well the crisis was here now, and that same determination and stubbornness was exactly what Sheridan needed.

"Whatever you need, you've got it." Sheridan nodded. "You have full presidential authority to act as you see fit."

"Thank you Mr President, I'm glad we're on the same page."

"This mission is too important to start without the whole crew being completely focused." Sheridan stated. "Get the paper work done as fast as you can."

"So Mr President," Gideon asked. "What is the mission?"

"Oh that's simple enough." Sheridan grinned "You're gonna save the world."

Once onboard the vast ship Gideon felt even more awed. The ship was a unique treasure trove, it took him a full five minutes to even recognize the ship had fully functional artificial gravity so caught up was his mind in examining the scope and scale of the craft.

"Most of her systems are based on human technology." Sheridan was explaining as if the ship was perfectly normal to him. "But the actual mechanisms tend to be Minbari. For example the computer interfaces and operating procedures are human, but the circuits and data banks are Minbari in origin. The weapons are human in design and function but the technology to make them work is Minbari, well mostly."

"Mostly?" Gideon turned his eyes from the wonderous ship.

"Some of the systems use technology gleaned from the Vorlons." Sheridans grin visibly grew. "Sensors, weapons, some propulsion. The full specs are in your quarters waiting for you."

"I caught some of the footage on ISN." Gideon admitted. "I didn't realize just what made these ships tick."

They ended their brief tour up on the bridge, the gleaming surfaces and busy crew highlighting that this was rapidly becoming humanities premier ship, at least in this universe.

"Lets head to the briefing room," Sheridan pointed back. "There are one or two things you should know before we go on. We have some new allies."

The entered the room and stopped in their tracks, the supposedly empty room had a single occupant.

"Greetings my friends, hope you don't mind me stopping by?" a black robed jovial man smiled at them.

"Galen?" both Sheridan and Gideon said in unison.

"Indeed," the rebellious technomage continued smiling. "Its cheery to see you haven't forgotten me. I am glad my help to you both has been worth while."

"You warned me about the planet killer, but not the Plague." Sheridan said with slight frustration. "Did it just slip your mind?"

"I'm sorry Mr President, but I am almost infallible, not completely infallible. There are some things even I cannot predict." He grunted in amusement. "The universe would be a most dreary place without some surprises now and again."

"Surprises?" Sheridan snarled. "Earth is dying! That's more than a surprise!"

"Which is why I am here." Galen noted. "I offer my help, which at times is considerable. Not only is this plague a quest to be resolved, but something of great curiosity has entered the game. An entirely new player with a whole realm of possibilities."

"_Daedalus_" Sheridan nodded. "What do you know?"

"Probably the same as you do, that it shouldn't be here." Galen spoke enigmatically. "But just maybe I can tell you more about its origins, and what happened to finally bring it to us."

"It was an accident." Sheridan said.

"There are no accidents Mr President." Galen stood and moved closer. "The universe likes a game, it abhors being dull so constantly gives us situations to investigate and mysteries to solve. The _Daedalus_ is not the first visitor to come through here, and I guarantee it will not be the last."

"You guys are talking about that ship on ISN?" Gideon joined. "I thought it was one of ours, another prototype like this ship."

"Not exactly, there are a few things we need to talk about." Sheridan said.

"If I may, I'd like to stay." Galen asked. "There may be more I can add to the story. The origins of this gateway perhaps?"

Sheridan might not entirely have trusted Galen, but his warning had saved Earth even if it wasn't complete. The Mage was hiding something but he needed every bit of help he could grasp.

"Okay, Captain Gideon, here's the story so far."

000000000000000

Minbari Space, near Trigati.

It was a Warriors world. Nobody came to this sector except vessels of the Warrior caste, mainly because there was nothing much to interest those without the violent proclivities of the Minbari combatants. While the world itself was harsh and deadly filled with monsters to try the resolve of the bravest soldier in orbit a series of starbases and battle platforms hosted shipyards and weapons factories. While no particular clan held the world it had always been the Wind Swords who most treasured this place, even naming their flagship after this rich and deadly location. To fight was to be alive, if the conflict died away the Warrior might as well die with it.

That belief had shaped Shai Alyt Kathenn's life. When Sineval had died and the _Trigati_ had disappeared with many of the best of his clan with it the duty of leadership came to Kathenn and those who remained to bear the shame of defeat. He had in many ways a harder task than the _Trigati_ crew had given themselves, Kathenn had to live each day with the shame and give his clan a new direction and purpose. He had to forge the strength of the Wind Swords again from nothing, and finally that was almost done.

"Shai Alyt." The local commander greeted him with a clenched fist. "We are ready for you."

The worlds violent life forms had proven to be more useful than just sport. Wide areas of the planet were rarely visited and mainly ignored even by other warriors, it had proven to be a particular blessing.The Wind Swords had avoided the Shadow war and as such found themselves with more resources than most clans trying to rebuild after that destruction and waste. While they had been busy kathenn and build this hidden facility beneath the hostile planet that was a place of pilgrimage for his people and now the fulfilment of his long mission was nearly at an end.

"The system has shown through success Shai Alyt." His aide said. "The experiments have been successful, we can begin full scale deployment immediately."

Kathenn walked through the underground base, warriors and militant workers bowing to him as he passed. "You have a sample?"

"Right this way."

Kathenn entered an isolated lab, in its centre was a large transparent crystal case with a single item inside. "Ahh yes, very impressive."

"The sample was very intuitive, once we provided the correct energy it activated all by itself."

"What about growth rate?" Kathenn asked, enthralled by the sight in the case.

"Incredibly fast Shai Alyt, it will be ready on schedule."

Kathenn smiled, for so long the Wind swords had been broken, soon they would be unstoppable. The black lump inside the crystal pulsed and rippled with malevolent energy, a rare piece of something which should have passed beyond the rim.

"We will clad our ships in this armour, the armour of the great enemy, and then we shall return to glory. The rest of the Minbari will suddenly see that the grey council has blinded them and they will join us. Whatever this new human ship is it will not matter. Death will come to them, and I shall wield it."

He stared at the black object, the last remnants of a Shadow vessel.

"The time is drawing nearer."


	13. Chapter 6 The Lost City

Chapter 6, The Lost City

Sol system, Earth Alliance.

"What do you know about these Wraith?" President Sheridan asked. He was still onboard the _Excalibur_ in Mars orbit as the ship underwent final resupply before beginning its new mission. Captain Gideon had pulled together a crew including the enigmatic Dureena Nafeel and most surprising of all Galen, the Technomage apparently looking forward to this grand adventure with obvious exuberance. He was sat once more in the ships briefing room with Captain Gideon now joined by General O'Neill and Colonel Caldwell.

"They are an alien race from the Pegasus galaxy," Caldwell answered. "Very old and very powerful, we've had a few skirmishes in the past but nothing this scale before."

"They've sent a fleet to our base on Atlantis." O'Neill continued. "It is absolutely vital we hold the city, for one thing it's the best facility we have to find a cure for the Drakh plague along with a whole wealth of other vital information left by the Ancients who built the place."

Sheridan nodded, if these Wraith were as hostile as they sounded the SGC was going to be stretched to defend its base. "What forces do you have?"

"I'm sending more teams through the Stargate to bolster the troops in the city." O'Neill said. "As soon as Caldwell tells me he's ready we'll be taking the _Daedalus_ back through and sending it to reinforce Atlantis from orbit."

"What about your other ship?"

O'Neill shook his head. "We can't risk sending _Prometheus_, it would leave Earth defenceless and we have other threats to worry about."

"The _Oddesey _and _Nemesis_ are close to completion, but they are still months away from flight readiness and if we add the new technology from your guys it'll be even longer." Caldwell sighed. "Our other three ships are only just been laid down now we know the design is sound."

"It'll be over a year before the _Argo, Achilles_ and _Theseus_ are up and running and until then we can only send one ship." O'Neill confirmed.

"Perhaps there is something we can do to help." Sheridan leaned forward. "I can talk to the Alliance and see if they can give you some of the mothballed fleet."

O'Neill and Caldwell shared a glance. "You'll give us some ships?"

"I can try, now they'll be old and outdated by our standards, with the Drakh threat Earth force needs every front line ship it can get, but we can give you some old _Olympus_ or _Artemis_ warships." Sheridan explained. "They're similar size to the _Daedalus_ and although they are slow and don't have gravity I'm sure you guys could fix them up with your systems, new engines and shields, that sort of thing."

"It's a great offer Mr President," O'Neill nodded his thanks. "They'll be a good stopgap until we get our own ships off the ground."

"The problem is trained crews." Caldwell stated. "There are only a couple of hundred trained ship crews on our entire planet, all part of the SGC."

"Maybe you could get the other governments to help?" Sheridan said. "Have them crew the ships, I'm sure they'd jump at a chance to own a space going cruiser."

"I bet they would." O'Neill grinned. "I'll talk to my President when I head back with _Daedalus_."

"Great, but I'm not finished yet." Sheridan looked to Gideon, and then back to O'Neill. "There's more, if Atlantis is vital to a Drakh cure we have an interest in keeping it safe."

"Yes Mr President, and freeing up those ships will help a lot."

"But not soon enough, you need forces now and even with ready built hulls it'll take weeks or months for you to fit out our old warships. You helped us in our hour of need," he nodded to Caldwell, "now we'll return the favour. I've talked to President Luchenko and convinced her of the Importance of Atlantis to the Earth Alliance, despite the current crisis she has made available a unit of Earth Force Marines and the destroyer _EAS Titans._"

"A destroyer?" O'Neill sounded impressed. "Like an escort ship for _Daedalus_?"

Sheridan raised his eyebrows for a moment. "Well it's a political thing, what we call a destroyer should really be called battleship or dreadnought. _Titans_ is a _Warlock_ class ship, about two kilometres or armoured firepower and Thunderbolts."

"Oh." O'Neill said calmly. "Well that's cool. Don't you think that's cool Colonel?"

"Yes sir." Caldwell nodded. "I've seen those ships in action, their forward guns could make the Wraith think twice about hitting Atlantis."

"The problem is getting them there." Sheridan continued. "You gave this ship a lift to the Victory shipyards, could you do the same to take a ship all the way to Atlantis?"

Caldwell shook his head. "I don't know, I'd have to ask Hermiod."

"And then sit through a lecture on how Asgard tech can do anything?" O'Neill added. "Just remind him that his guys owe me for saving their butts about fourteen times."

"Yes sir." Caldwell smiled. "But in theory we could haul a ship across the galaxy."

"How about more than one?" Sheridan smiled. "That's what Earth is sending, but as President of the Interstellar Alliance I have a few other resources at my disposal."

"Like what mr President?"

"Like this ship." He glanced around him. "Plus a few Ranger ships, Delenn has released some _Whitestar_ class attack ships, they're agile enough to dance circles around anything and pack a hell of a punch."

"That should come in real useful, we'll take any fresh firepower we can get." O'Neill grinned. "Show those Wraith they picked the wrong species to screw with."

"The _Excalibur_ will be ready when _Daedalus_ is." Gideon interjected. "My crew is in place and there's just one more thing to take care of."

"Whats that?" Sheridan frowned. "I thought you were good to go?"

"Mr President, I can't start hopping galaxies and attack all powerful aliens with the head of the Interstellar alliance on board." Gideon said pointedly. "You're too important to risk sir."

"He's right." O'Neill agreed. "I heard you are pretty handy with a nuke but you have other things to do here. We'll take care of it."

Sheridan reluctantly had to agree. He'd already been hanging around on the _Excalibur_ for too long because he felt like he needed to do something direct, to be on the frontlines trying to make a difference. Unfortunately those days were behind him now and he had a responsibility to the alliance he had help forge, and if he happened to be killed or lost in battle during this crisis it could fundamentally cripple the ISA. He had to let it go.

"I guess Delenn would be expecting me back." He sighed. "Very well Captain, I'll take the first ship to Minbar, but keep me informed."

"We'll all do what we can to get word through." O'Neill promised. "On behalf of my superiors thanks for the help, and the spare warships."

"You're welcome General, good luck with your mission."

"With the amount of firepower we're taking in?" O'Neill grinned widely. "The Wraith will be the ones praying for help."

0000000000000000000000000000000000

Asteroid belt, Sol system, 2004.

"Wow, it really is identical." Commander Morton noted.

"But quiet." Captain Ivanova said. "No mining posts, no colonies, no transports. Just total silence."

Ivanova had guessed right, the _Titans_ was being held in reserve in case of a special mission, and this certainly counted. They had arrived with a pair of _Whitestars_ and the massive form of the _Excalibur_ to assist in the defence of Atlantis and while a worthy mission Ivanova had one or two reservations, the biggest one was travelling there and more importantly back again. The official plan was to 'Piggy back' with the _Daedalus_ all the way to Atlantis and back as time allowed. On paper this sounded fine, but considering the forces provided by Sheridan outmassed the little ship by about four hundred times Ivanova wasn't looking forward to travelling further than any Earth force officer had imagined.

"Its amazing." Morton said wistfully. "You grow up knowing Mars is just a day away, that the whole solar system is buzzing with life and constant communication chatter, then you take a look at this. It's so unspoiled."

Ivanova kept a neutral expression. This was what home would look like if all the humans just stopped. For her it wasn't peaceful of unspoiled, it was a graveyard.

"Captain, here's something." Lieutenant Patel said from communications. "Picking up some transmissions from Earth, a lot of Transmissions."

"Lets have a look." Ivanova nodded. "Garibaldi was always saying 20th century entertainment is the best."

One of the bridge consoles changed from tactical readings to showing a group of scantily clad women, causing murmurs of appreciation from the male crew and a glare from Ivanova. They were stood on a beach giggling inanely as a greasy looking male presenter introduced them to the viewing audience.

"I think your friend was right Captain." Morton smiled "this is entertainment."

For the next fifteen minutes they watched as the assorted lovelies performed 'tasks' in order to win the game show, these tasks invariably involved getting wet and showing cleavage. While her first officer seemed captivated Ivanova was amazed such exploitative material would go out disguised as entertainment.

"Oh come on!" she pointed. "Don't they have shame?"

"Guess not." Morton leered. "Err, guess not Captain."

"Lieutenant, find a news channel." She ordered, noting Patel was gawping at the screen. "Mr Patel, unless you want to finish your shift wearing less than those empty headed starlets you'll find a news channel right now."

He quickly did so, and a more well dressed woman arrived on screen to give them a quick insight into the current state of the Earth.

"Captain, report from the hangar deck, our passengers are ready to depart." Morton suddenly reported.

"Very well, inform General O'Neill and get the shuttles ready."

In addition to the ships own weapons and airwing the _Titans_ had been loaded up with a large force of Earth force soldiers and their support equipment for deployment to Earth and then through the gate to Atlantis. Almost a full battalion of Gropo's were moving to bolster the defences at Atlantis taking with them Uller anti aircraft lasers and even a unit of Vakyrie VTOL gunships stowed in their hulls in a disassembled form able to fit through the gate. Quite how a dozen shuttles streaking down to Earth would be explained was outside her remit, she reckoned the SGC was adept at making excuses by now.

"Message confirmed, he asks us to proceed when ready."

With a nod the launch sequences were activated. Internal gravity was switched off to the launch bay and the _Hades_ class assault shuttles rose up on minimal thrusters. Normally the sky would be swimming with Thunderbolts to provide cover but as they were in friendly space it wasn't required, the _Prometheus_ herself would be going in with the shuttles while taking O'Neill back to Stargate Command to oversee the operation. In the same way that Sheridan had to return home and leave the dangerous stuff to his commanders, so too did O'Neill have to leave Caldwell in charge. With a clank the bay doors opened and the Earth force troops headed planetside.

"Well we're committed now." Ivanova sighed. "I hope John knows what he's doing." She reflected that upon first hearing the idea her reactions had been less supportive.

"Dammit John, what the hell are you doing!"

Ivanova was fuming, she had stood up in shock as Sheridan explained the current situation to her following the Drakh assault and the existence of the alien artefact. "Are you serious!"

"Atlantis is the main source of advanced information we have access to." President Sheridan continued calmly, they were both alone in the _Excalibur's_ briefing room orbiting Mars.

"Its in another galaxy! Another reality! How do you know it even exists?"

"General O'Neill gave me his word, and after what happened with his people I'm inclined to believe him." Sheridan said with a growing edge to his voice. "They have given us no reason to doubt them and every reason to trust them."

"And have you got anything solid in return?" she snapped. "You give them interceptors, new engines, advanced fire control computers, hell you even let them look around a ship that's supposed to be top secret! Now you're going to send our people to heaven knows where to fight for them? What are you, nuts?"

"We've had a good look at their technology." Sheridan stated flatly. "Michael is securing certain manufacturing rights even as we speak."

"You brought Garibaldi into this too?"

"He's already through the gate on their version of Earth and has been for some time."

Ivanova blinked in surprise. "Nobody said anything?"

"Wouldn't be much of a secret mission otherwise would it?" Sheridan smiled. "The full story is known by very few people, despite the best efforts of ISN." He grumbled.

"And now you're sending a task force through? Also in secret?"

"That's right, until we can show something concrete to the people, like a possible cure for the plague, we need to keep things quiet and let ISN spin along any story they want to."

The true motivations of her friend suddenly became apparent to her. Normally Sheridan would have been cautious and examined every aspect of the new arrivals story himself along with covert reconnaissance from his Ranger units to make sure they were honourable, but with a sword hanging over Earth he was forced to rely on instinct alone for now and while it was causing him a lot of stress he had to know he was doing the right thing.

"You really think they can help us?" she asked quietly.

"From what I've heard Atlantis was built by their version of First ones, like a miniature Great Machine. I've given Captains Gideon and Anderson the mission to find and analyse anything left by the First ones wherever it is, we'd be fools not to go and check it out."

"You're going to send one of these ships?" Ivanova wondered.

"Captain Gideon is ready to go, he just needs his XO sending over." Sheridan replied. "I'll also send a few Rangers to help, but I think we need a commissioned pure Earth Force ship out there too."

"Good look finding someone dumb enough to… oh no way."

"Susan, of all the Earth force ships yours is best suited to the mission, it's the best in the fleet and with an expert crew and Captain you'll be our best ambassadors to the SGC."

"Its another galaxy!"

"It's a mission to secure a cure for Earth." Sheridan corrected. "The most vital mission since Coriana. I need someone I trust out there Susan, I trust Garibaldi and he's representing us to the SGC. I trust Delenn and she is planning on hosting a conference for our new allies to set up an official treaty. And I trust you Susan, I got industry covered, I got politics covered, now I need someone to cover the Military."

"I don't know John, I have a duty to stay here and protect Earth, and to kick the crap out of the Drakh."

"Plenty of time for that later." Sheridan smiled. "But I need you out there Susan, the Joint Chiefs have approved but the final word is yours. What do you say?"

Obviously she hadn't refused, and now here she was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away bringing Russian grumpiness back to the stars. The army units headed away for their mission which left her free to conclude her own. "Move us into position, nice and steady."

The _Warlock_ took position besides the mighty _Excalibur_, the _Whitestars_ forming up between them. They were much closer than Ivanova was comfortable with but the closer they were the less space the _Daedalus_ would have to cover with its hyperdrive which would already be strained to the limit. Hermiod had dragged every ounce of power from the ships systems and linked up some secondary Naquadah generators to give an added boost, but he had been quite clear that this was a very risky action. Even so Atlantis had to be protected and they needed to get as much firepower there as possible.

0000000000000000

**Stargate Command, Cheyenne mountain**.

"Good to be back." O'Neill stepped out of the elevator and surveyed the organized chaos surrounding him. Heavily armed troops darted back and forth nearly bowling the general over as the entire facility seemed to be a hive of busy ants. "It's like I never left."

He wandered down the corridor with his hands in his pockets observing the scene, trolleys full of heavy weapons were rolled past all heading to the gate room while technicians and officers argued about the best order to ship things through. He approached one of the small gaggle talking about the Earth force supplies.

"They'll be a valuable stop gap until we get our heavy ships in place." Colonel Carter emphasized.

"True," a technician replied. "But we can't get the crates down even in the freight elevators."

"Hi Carter." O'Neill chipped in.

"So how did we get the gate in?" she continued without noticing O'Neill. "Open up the test shaft and lower them in."

"Carrrrterrrr." O'Neill said in a sing-song voice.

"You know how much trouble that would be?"

"Trouble?" Carter dropped her voice. "Trouble! This is Atlantis we're talking about, those are our people out there and if I have to move this whole damn mountain we will get those reinforcements through, now do it!"

"Echo." O'Neill sighed. "Is there anybody out there?"

"Okay Ma'am." The technician stated. "I'll get on it."

"See that you do." She said firmly, then almost walked into O'Neill. "Oh, General didn't see you there."

"Uh hu." He acknowledged. "Well you seemed preoccupied."

"It's the heavy weapons you brought back from our new friends, you know they gave us VTOL gunships?"

"Yeah, I'd call that awesome."

"Me too, and they come in crates ready to assemble, I guess so they can be airlifted like an Apache and quickly assembled in front line airfields. Or maybe space lifted," Carter considered. "Anyway, they fit through the gate in their parts but not into the facility, so we'll have to open up the shaft above and lower them down."

"But it'll be worth it." O'Neill nodded. "You handled that guy well, making you a Colonel was easily the smartest thing I've ever done." He paused. "Which might not be saying much, but call it a compliment."

"Thank you General." She smiled with a hint of shyness. The two officers had a past, one which they couldn't openly acknowledge but which occasionally surfaced in these quiet moments. Quickly she changed the subject. "The first batch of Alliance soldiers showed up, they call themselves 'Gropers?'"

"Gropos." O'Neill corrected. "Slang for 'Ground pounders' which kinda makes sense."

"Right, well they started filtering down. Mr Garibaldi is up in briefing ready to meet you."

"Good, Sheridan sent a guy to deliver him a message, called a Ranger. Not very talkative."

Carter smiled, trying to get a word in past O'Neill was a hard task for anyone. "We'll go let him know the situation."

0000000000

"Lousy Dodgers." Garibaldi put down the data pad Sheridan had sent.

"Vital information then." O'Neill nodded at the message.

"Most of it's tech readouts, reports on how my little business is doing back home, that sort of thing." The bald man explained. "I figure he dropped in that score just to torment me."

Beside him the black and brown robed human stood unmoving and silent. "You know that guy said about two words all the way over. "O'Neill pointed. "So what's a Ranger?"

"We are those who walk in the dark places where none dare travel." The Ranger spoke nobly. "We stand on the bridge and none may pass, we are a light in the shadow and the guardians of the night. We live for the one, we die for the one."

"Wow." O'Neill said with awe in his voice, then turned to Garibaldi. "So what's a Ranger?"

"They are Sheridan's elite, answerable directly to the President and Delenn." Garibaldi said calmly, clearly quite a fan of Rangers himself. "We train them in every form of combat, from unarmed combat to fleet level strikes, couple of his buddies are accompanying the fleet to Atlantis. But their real value is behind the scenes, they are the best espionage and intel operatives known to us, every security chiefs best friend or worst nightmare. Guys are serious players and I'm glad they're on our side."

"Neat." O'Neill smiled at the Ranger who remained stonily silent. "Welcome to my world."

At that point Daniel Jackson strode in with his head buried in a report. With years of practice he managed to find his place at the table without even looking up and sat down with them. "Sorry I'm late, just reviewing some of these history files, remarkable stuff."

"Care to share?" O'Neill raised an eyebrow.

"It's data Mr Garibaldi here provided, our history is more or less identical up until the late twentieth century, while we elected President Hayes in Mr Garibaldi's universe there was no such person so they elected a different President after Clinton, and after that we split."

"Well that explains the slightly different cultures, but what about the other alien races, like the Goa'uld or Asgard?" Carter asked. "Or the ancients?"

"That's the big question." Daniel looked up. "There is no record of those races, but we do have vague references to 'ancient and powerful beings' who could have been their version of ancients, unfortunately there were a lot of similar races around who didn't really get along."

"Vorlons and Shadows." Garibaldi clarified. "Not the best of friends, caused a lot of wars and wiped out a lot of civilizations before they could really expand. Could be the Goa'uld and others were among them."

"Likewise the system lords here or other unknown powers could have destroyed our universes versions of Minbari or Narn." Carter commented. "Or we just might not have encountered them yet."

"Which brings me to the Stargate." Daniel remarked. "With no dominant ancients it means no Stargate network, instead the races over there developed other methods of travel. This does however create one huge problem."

"The dimensional gate out there." Carter continued. "The one in the other universe had ancient writing, meaning somehow the ancients put it there."

"But we don't know how?" O'Neill concluded.

"Our IPX guys are going through back records of every dig they visited." Garibaldi contributed. "If we can find a trace of the same language we might be able to shed light on things, but until then we should finish up here."

"Okay, so next order of business." O'Neill looked to Carter. "What is it?"

"Funding." She announced. "General Hammond will be seeing the President to get more money into developing weapons from the ISA."

"We could use that." the general nodded. "What about the other governments?"

"Well the Russians and Chinese are adamant they will do their own research." Daniel outlined. "But Britain will combine its resources with ours on a joint development, we're hoping to float the idea past the ISA leadership about creating a new type of ship built from the ground up with our combined expertise."

"But until then some basic refits will be enough." Carter remarked. "We've tested some Alliance energy weapons and they'll fit nicely onto our new 303 ship hulls under construction."

"Speaking of, how many of them do you have?" Garibaldi wondered.

"Currently two in operation." O'Neill answered. "With two more ready soon. We hope for a fleet of twelve in the end while I understand the British are building one with plans for a second. Russia and China as always go with their own while France makes a fuss but remains on the fence."

"Back home we use heavy automation to build our ships, construction robots and all sorts of plasma cutters and welders. Looks cool to watch." Garibaldi smiled. "Point is we can churn out ships the size of a 303 in a couple of months."

"It takes us over a year, even considering secrecy issues." Carter stated.

"Well I guess that's something else we can help each other with." Garibaldi said helpfully. "We're both on the same page here, with some of your shielding and weapons on our ships and some of our basic infrastructure elements here, well I can see this being very profitable."

"It'll give the president something else to spend our hard earned money on." O'Neill said, and then was interrupted by an incoming call. "O'Neill here. Who? Oh yeah, send him along." Then he placed the phone down. "Another one of your guys."

A few moments later a thickly built dark skinned Earth Alliance officer stepped into the room with a commanding presence, he wore a smart duty uniform and had an air of supreme confidence.

"General Richard Franklin, assigned on the authority of President Luchenko of the Earth Alliance."

"Welcome General." O'Neill stood and offered a respectful salute. "Please take a seat."

"Hello General, how was the trip?" Garibaldi offered.

"Mr Garibaldi, heard you made it big. Congratulations." Franklin managed to make the compliment seem like a mild telling off. "The trip was new." He said with amusement. "In fact this whole thing will take some getting used to."

"It's a pretty big step." Garibaldi agreed. "You heading through the gate?"

"No, I'll be staying here and acting as a central command for all Earth force units on this side of the gateway." Franklin explained. "With General O'Neill's blessing I'd like to set up in this facility if possible and stay close to the SGC."

"Fine by me." His fellow General agreed. "Make yourself at home."

"We're sending a full batallion through," Franklin continued, "we'd have preferred more but Earth is stretched to the limit back home, all we could spare were these forces and an old general to lead them." He chuckled a little. "I'm amazed you managed to get a _Warlock_ out here."

"President Sheridan pulled a couple of strings." Garibaldi shrugged.

"I'm sure." Franklin said with some disapproval. "Well we're here now."

"And it's good to have a little back up." O'Neill said truthfully. "Okay, I think that covers it. Lets get your guys set up and over to Atlantis."

000000000

With the troops deployed and the ground defences sent to Atlantis the ZPM powering the gate was removed and rapidly transferred up to the _Daedalus_ for integration into the ships hyperdrive. It wasn't exactly an exact science and the integration needed a lot of work, as Hermiod insisted on repeating. Fortunately the process was quick, though Ivanova was in no hurry to make the journey.

"Holding position." Commander Morton said. "Shouldn't be long now."

"Do you think this will actually work Commander?" Ivanova asked. "I mean really?"

"Well the SGC ships are supposed to be pretty powerful, lots of reactor juice. I think it'll be okay."

Ivanova remained unconvinced. "You know we'll probably just explode, but far enough away so no body ever figures out what happened to us." She mused on the idea a little. "Yeah, that's where we're going. It'll be a mystery."

"Yes Captain."

"Check out the local News again, maybe there's something important happening."

Her nearby console flickered on and she found herself looking at an immaculately coiffed blonde female in a sharp suit. At the very least the story would take her mind of her impending doom.

"And Finally," the reporter said. "UFO's, aliens and little green men beware because your secret is out."

That made Ivanova pay attention, according to Sheridan the existence of alien races was still unknown to the people on Earth. For such a story to leak out would constitute a major breach of security on the part of the SGC or its allies.

"Clarence Wilmy of Nevada has spent his whole life trying to reveal the truth, that humanity is immersed in a war with an alien superpower which our government is hiding from us. Mr Wilmy claims to have seen not only alien vessels but also extremely advanced human built weapons using alien technology. Here's what he had to say."

The studio cut to a man in a cheapa nd slightly scruffy suit stood in the desert next to a military sign and a barbed wire fence warning intruders to stay away. In the far background behind the fence a black truck was visible. Ivanova suppressed a chuckle at how theatrical it was, while this guy and the world looked at this place in Nevada the real action was happening in Colorado. The more she thought about it the more she believed the government was controlling these random sightings to throw off investigators from the true scent.

"All this they tell us about meteor storms and light reflecting off clouds? Its absolute crap!" the man raved. "I know the truth! The _Nimitz_ wasn't hit by a rock, it was them!"

"Are you saying the carrier was destroyed by aliens?" a dour field reporter asked.

"That's exactly right, we're at war." He pointed back through the fence. "You should see whats in there, did you know our government has real space ships? Why do you think we don't go to the Moon? Its because we have colonies on other worlds to finance! And do you really think a Stealth Bomber costs two billion dollars, it costs a tenth that but the money supposed to be spent on it goes to black projects with alien technology."

"I'm sure our viewers would like to know if you have any proof?"

"It's all in the book, everything." He waved a fairly grotty looking paperback at the camera. "American Space ships, Alien wars, grey alien experiments, super evolved humans living among us, an agency in the FBI dedicated to discovering unexplained cases, and the truth about the loss of the _Nimitz_, all in my book!"

"But what about proof?"

"Here," he fished a photograph out of his pocket. "Look at that, I took from my camp in the desert, it's a Space ship! A real one!"

He held the image up for the camera to see and Ivanova gasped a little as she spotted the _Prometheus_ pictured as clear as day crossing the desert.

"This is real, I'll submit it for any tests you want, this is real and it's happening now!"

The field reporter was clearly unsure of himself now. "Well I think we'll need a little more…"

"How about videos of lights in the air moving faster than normal acceleration allows? How about plans smuggled out of human built space fighters called F 302's by the Government? What about samples of alien DNA and eyewitness accounts of a human lifting a three ton truck?"

"How did you get this alleged evidence?"

"Lets just say I have friends in high places, people who know the truth, even in the ranks of the homeworld defence command."

"I'm afraid that's all we have time for, but could this man have what so many have sought for so long? Proof. This has been Alan Molen, Area 51." The reporter signed off and returned to the studio anchor.

"Well on that note good evening, and watch out for little green men." She beamed an insincere smile. "I'm Julia Donovan, Goodnight."

"Think any of that is for real?" Morton asked. "The _Prometheus_ would be hard to fake, this is like a major breach."

"Maybe." Shrugged Ivanova. "I mean we know that its all real back home, so I guess it is here. We'll ask Colonel Caldwell assuming we don't all end up dead."

"Ours is not to make reply, ours is not to reason why." Morton quoted an old poem.

"Ours is but to do and die." Ivanova finished the mantra. "Orders are orders huh?"

"The President wouldn't send us on a suicide mission like this, there's got to be a good chance of us getting out of this alive."

"You don't know John Sheridan," Ivanova smiled. "He was always sending me on dangerous and suicidal operations. I got the impression he thought it was for the funny look on my face when he mentioned the term 'certain death' three or four times in a conversation."

"He seemed to have an odd sense of humour, he's no Rebo and Zooty."

"Which is a good thing." She said quickly. "If I ever hear those guys spoken about again I'll reintroduce keel hauling as a punishment, and on a ship this size it won't be fun."

"Aye Captain." Morton stood too and hid a smile.

"Captain," Lieutenant Patel spoke up. "We have a transmission from _Daedalus_, she's ready."

"That's our cue ladies an gentlemen." Ivanova said. "Alright then, get yourselves strapped in and prepared for the jump, we can't predict how this will go so prepare for the worst." It was like her motto.

"All fighters are locked down, jump engines safe, bulkheads sealed." Morton said. "All sealed up at action stations."

"The I guess all that remains is an old Egyptian blessing then." She said quietly, the same one she had heard from her old Captain many years ago.

"_Daedalus_ is in position." Morton reported. "Powering up."

"If it all goes right we'll just be along for the ride." Ivanova commented. "Just think happy thoughts."

"Energy spike, here we go." Morton grabbed the console out of instinct.

The Captain took a breath and projected as much calm as she could to the crew and whispered the old prayer. "May God stand between us and harm in all the empty places where we must walk." Ivanova recited the old blessing, then closed her eyes.

Space altered as the window opened into hyperspace in a bright green flash, and when it dimmed the fleet was gone.


	14. Chapter 7 The Siege Part 1

Sorry for the long time between updates everyone but I'm currently deployed to Iraq so updates have been a little difficult. Hopefully I'll get to update this story on a more regular basis. I'd also like to take a moment to thank the rest of the members of the Chronicles team. Count, Tyr, and Chris O, You guys rock. Oh and don't worry everyone for those of you following my other fic Homeworld Bound, that one too will be updated shortly. Enjoy

Atlantis

"So let me get this straight, they suck your life?"

"That's what the guy said." Private Murdoch confirmed.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Private Kalikov retorted. "How can they suck life? How is that biologically possible?"

Murdoch shrugged. "He said they grab you, stick their claws in your chest and suck life from you, it makes you age until you die."

The two Earth force soldiers were walking through the Ancient city heading for their assigned posts, they had been put on full alert and warned enemy ships were in orbit, the attack was expected any moment. They were both part of the 509th Earth force Marine battalion, assigned to Colonel Grey by presidential order for this rather unusual and increasingly foreboding mission. The 509th was said to be the most brutal close quarters fighters in Earth service and had a long history of fighting in the narrow confines of starship corridors and alien underground hives. They had taken ships from the Dilgar and were recently famous for fighting with Captain Sheridan's forces against President Clark, their great claim to fame was seizing the prototype _Warlock_ destroyers nearing completion before the loyalists could sabotage or steal them. While this was glory enough the regiment claimed its ultimate achievement was coming within a hairs breadth of seizing a Minbari warcruiser during their war. Two companies of marines had ambushed the ship in hyperspace with breaching pods, an incredibly dangerous tactic that the Minbari had never seen coming. Sadly long range scans had detected a huge explosion in the area the ship was supposed to be in, the official report said that the ship was destroyed by its own crew to prevent the Marines seizing it. While tragic the men and women of the Battalion were immensely proud of those who tried to take the Warcruiser and the first and second companies still bore Minbari skulls on their unofficial badge.

The two soldiers crossed an open bridge between the tall spires giving them an amazing view of the city, its towers reaching high into the dark and starry sky. Both of them had seen startling alien worlds before but this was something almost unparalleled in beauty, the view matched by the calming splash of water at the edges of the city lapping gently at the metal structure. It was all just appearances though, there was nothing calm or peaceful here and the silence was one of apprehension and dread, not content enjoyment of the scenery. The towers around them were crammed with soldiers and defence installations including rail guns and heavy machine guns brought by the American Marines and supplemented with a few Earth force laser defence turrets lifted bodily from Uller class air defence tanks and shipped in crates through the gate. There was also a large stockpile of surface to air missiles from both groups and the planned ace in the hole waiting in the jumper room, six Valkyrie gunships. The VTOL's were designed for ground attack but were the only aircraft which could be taken apart enough to fit through the gate, hopefully the relieve fleet would arrive soon and give them all the Thunderbolts they could wish for.

"There are some freaky aliens out there." Kalikov sighed, adjusting the rifle on his shoulder. Usually the Marines carried standard PPG rifles for ship board combat, but because they were being deployed planetside they had been given improved weapons and grenades. While Kalikov had an enhanced PPG rifle Murdoch was carrying a fearsome BilPro shotgun, a weapon designed to spew tiny metal fletchettes at concentrations of enemy troops with incredible force. In the caverns of Sinazar during the Minbari war they had come as quite a shock to the warrior caste.

"Gonna be some freaky aliens here too." Murdoch noted. "Apparently they want this place in one piece."

"Well it's a hell of a view."

"And they'll kill all of us to capture this city."

"Yeah." Kalikov nodded. "They must really appreciate the view."

They walked into another tower and saluted a Sergeant of the US Marine corps. It was odd meeting what were essentially their forebearers in the military, and one or two of the Earth force troops with long family histories of service had tried to see if they had relatives in the detachment, but so far none had met an ancestor. Murdoch was frankly disturbed by the idea of meeting his great, great how ever many times removed grand father and really wanted to avoid it. He knew enough about the theory of time travel to keep clear. They had been given equal status with the US Marines, which meant a US Sergeant could command Earth force troops if the situation demanded or an EA Lietenant could take over a platoon of US Marines if their officers were killed. It tended to make life easier and both troops had remarkably similar close quarters training.

"Whoah whoah there, who are you?" a sudden and irritated voice caught them as they stepped into a circular room, a man was seated in a chair in the centre and a shorter more stocky civilian marched towards them looking extremely put out. "You guys aren't supposed to be here!"

"Rodney, relax." The man in the chair said. "You soldiers looking for something?"

"Yes sir." Murdoch recognized the man as Major Shepherd. "Blue platoon of Alpha company, they are supposed to be deployed here."

"Well clearly they are not in this room!" MacKay waved his arms around. "Now if you'll excuse us…"

"Try the corridor on the left." Shepherd advised. "About two hundred metres further on."

"No need." A female voice interrupted in a clear English accent. "They can come with me."

At the door stood a tall and slender woman with incredibly pale skin and dark hair. Cold blue eyes stated from her slim features betraying no emotion whatsoever. She wore standard Earth force fatigues and body armour but was carrying a laser rifle instead of a standard PPG. The laser based weapons were incredibly expensive and the fact she was hauling one pointed to her having friends in high places.

"Captain, Privates Murdoch and Kalikov reporting for duty." They both saluted. "Colonel Grey thought you could use another shot gun."

"I'll take it." She nodded. "Welcome to Alpha company, down the corridor, two hundred metres." She repeated Shepherds directions. "Sergeant Maxwell will see to your assignments." She answered their salutes and sent them on their way.

"Captain," Rodney MacKay stepped forward. "I have a request."

"Rodney, I wouldn't." Shepherd advised.

"This is at least occasionally a scientific laboratory. Now I realise we're about to be invaded by life sucking aliens but even so, perhaps you could tell your soldiers not to just walk into rooms when I am conducting experiments, especially experiments designed to you know, save all our butts?"

The Captain gave him an incredibly icy look. "If that is your request I will take it under advisement."

"Which is military speak for 'shut up and go away' isn't it?"

"Got it in one." She smiled.

"Captain Thorne isn't it?" Shepherd looked up from the chair.

"That's right major, Alpha company of the 509th."

"I noticed you had two badges on your arm, can you explain to Rodney what they mean?"

She stood a little side ways so the doctor could see her right arm. "The first is the company emblem, it's the skull of a Minbari warrior. There are two designs, one is a plain skull, the other has a knife through it. If you have a knife it means you have killed a Minbari."

MacKay noticed she had a veritable bushel of daggers on her badge. "Wait, you killed Minbari? I thought the war ended ten years ago?"

"Twenty actually."

"So you'd have been a child at the time!"

"Who said anything about me killing Minbari in the war?" she offered. "The second badge is the Greek symbol denoting I am a telepath serving in Earth force."

"I've heard some of the officers talking about telepaths." Shepherd spoke. "What exactly can you do?"

"I can read minds and nothing short of a top level telepath can stop me." She spoke fixing her eyes on Rodney. "I can block other scans of myself and sense the presence of other sentient beings for hundreds of metres around, further if they are telepaths themselves."

"Like the Wraith." Rodney recognized. "But the Wraith have the ability to possess Telepaths, you won't go mental and kill us all will you?"

She looked at him as one looks at an errant child. "No, I won't." she said calmly. "I am a combat Telepath, trained originally as a Blue Beret which was a unit of telepaths out side of Psi corps grip, run by Earth intelligence. If anyone tries to force themselves into my mind I will turn their brain to jelly."

"You can do that?" Shepherd asked. "Cool."

"I have the ability to go in and make a mind see anything I decide." She looked down on Rodney. "I can make your brain think you are drowning in fresh air or convince you to strip off and sunbathe in Antarctica. I can fill your mind with infinite bliss or make you believe you are in unending agony. I can empty your mind and leave you a vegetable or overload your processes and create an aneurysm which results in instant death." She stepped closer, causing Rodney to step back. "Or if I was really angry I could make your life a living nightmare from which you will never escape, surrounded by horrors you never dreamed possible. If a Wraith goes into my mind he will find nothing but cold, dark terror."

With that she nodded the Shepherd and went on her way, leaving MacKay visibly paler.

"She is kind of cute, in a psychotic sort of way." Shepherd said.

"Oh good heavens, two more seconds and I'd have needed new pants." MacKay walked shakily back to the chair. "Can she do all that?"

"Oh yeah." Shepherd nodded. "That's what her Colonel said, she was black ops for the last ten years and only she knows haw many humans and aliens are dead because of it. When the Psi corps disbanded and all telepaths gained the ability to join the forces she signed up in the army and got herself assigned here, leading the most brutal company in the Alliances most brutal regiment."

"What a peach." Rodney stammered.

"Well personally I'm glad she's here." The Major said. "If she scares us imagine what she'll do to the Wraith."

Suddenly the ambient light dropped as the cities lighting grid went down. The radio crackled and Weir warned of attack from the command tower.

"Well here we go." Shepherd leaned back in the chair and brought the defences online. "Drones ready."

"I have them coming in, over a hundred." MacKay warned. "Radiation must have screened them until the last minute, this is going to suck."

When the lights went off Murdoch and Kalikov bolted down the rest of the corridor coming out on a balcony with a prize view of the battle. They were away from the central structures about half way out on one of the spokes looking up into the sky. Two US marines with 50cal machine guns occupied the space with them but the heavier weapons were all reserved for the centre towers. In the distance they could see one of the air defence laser batteries turning towards the expected attack.

"We have incoming." A US Marine warned. "Keep down and watch out for boarding parties."

"No problem, we'll watch your back." Murdoch said unslinging the shotgun.

"And remember, if you see a Wraith do not let it touch you." The Marine added. "Just shoot it until it falls, then shoot it again to make sure."

"Amen to that." Kalikov agreed.

"Are they on their way?" Captain Thorne arrived and searched the sky, focusing on one area. "There, that's their approach."

"I don't see anything." The gunner squinted.

"Trust me, that's their heading." She primed he rifle with a long whine of building energy. "Don't be frugal with your fire, set for full auto. Private Murdoch, warn us before you shoot that thing."

"Yes Ma'am." He nodded.

From the towers the laser batteries fired first, in the far distance the red beams ended in tiny flashes of light in the black sky. Tiny bright specks began to grow and resolve into Wraith dart craft and the sweeping lasers were joined by blue pulses from the rail guns as they hurled projectiles into the faces of the darts.

"Good luck people." Thorne said into her radio. "Watch for friendlies and kill anything that's green. Fire when ready."

The city began showering the Wraith squadrons with assorted weapons fire as they passed by, swooping over and around the towers nimbly weaving past the firestorm. From a distance it looked like a garden sprinkler throwing out innumerable drops of water, each droplet a deadly projectile from the defences. Wraith ships flared and exploded, some turned outright into showers of debris others were winged and spun crazily into the waters around the island fortress. The Wraith craft swarmed by in great numbers, for every one destroyed another was eager to follow on and the weight of the attack did not lessen.

For Murdoch this was something new, he had witnessed airstrikes before delivered from Earth force warplanes but they usually came in from high altitude with guided bombs and missiles, most of the time he never even saw the aircraft dropping the bombs. He watched in utter fascination as the darts whizzed by at literally roof top level flying between the towers. He wasn't on a high spire but some ships flew so low he was actually looking down on them. The only time EA fighters had conducted those sort of strikes was against Minbari targets were flying above tree top level was invariably suicidal. Murdoch had missed that war, but had been enlisted in time to join the attack on Janos VII with General Franklin and then take the Warlock ship yards. But this spectacle eclipsed all of that.

Beside him the gunners were spraying a continuous stream of fire into the sky, red tracers and incendiary rounds slashing between towers and joining the other batteries in a deafening chatter. Spent cartridges clattered to the floor beside him and the sight mesmerized him for a moment, Earth force had some heavy calibre machine guns still in service, they generally had a range and sheer stopping power in excess of the PPG support weapons which were more common. However EA slug throwers used caseless ammunition, so the gathering piles of clinking brass tubes gently smoking at his feet was like being in an old movie and slightly surreal to him.

His attention was quickly regained by two darts which were bearing straight for them.

"Gunners, concentrate on the right side craft!" Thorne ordered, the 50cals swinging to track the dart. "Kalikov, wasp!"

The Wasp was the EA version of the shoulder launched anti aircraft missile. Outwardly similar to a stinger it had greater speed and a more deadly warhead designed for breaking Minbari armour, against the Wraith it was a certain kill if it hit. He dropped to one knee and lined up the target, waiting until the computer gave confirmation and locked on.

"Clear behind!" he warned, then fired. A jet of fire erupted from the back as it was literally pushed out of the tube by its engines, racing away with such speed the missile exhaust didn't even scorch the fabric on Kalikov's helmet. It took the dart head on and utterly destroyed it, smoking wreckage clanking and thudding on the spire around them. The gunners tore a hole in the second dart, it spun out of control gushing fire from its shredded side and clipped a tower, leaving a black tear in the silver structure before finally hitting the ocean.

Laser beams swept left and right tracing across the Wraith darts destroying a handful with each volley, the flaming wrecks adding to the glow which bathed the city. Joining the torrent of weapons fire was the occasional smoke trail of a missile launch and even bursts of PPG fire from the Earth force troops who took any opportunity to hit a low flying target. Despite this there were still more darts coming in that could be adequately tracked, and as they located areas of defensive value they swept in with their teleporters to deposit warriors or take away the gunners who missed their targets. But for each gun which fell silent there were more gunners to man the place of their missing comrades, dashing forward into arms way and taking up the mission filling the sky with a defensive net.

The drones from the cities own defences joined the fight, Major Shepherd spending them carefully and ensuring each one took down a marauding fighter. They were few in number but each one claimed a kill before they were expended. The Wraith were holding off on using their guns not willing to damage the city, this gave the defenders a much better chance than if each emplacement was destroyed. The Wraith could take gunners but left the weapons for other troops to man. However they did have another way of destroying the emplacements, with their ground troops.

"They're here." Captain Thorne closed her eyes. "Heading this way in fact, Sergeant Maxwell?" she spoke on her combat radio. "Get blue platoon to intersection J right away. Kalikov, stay here and watch the gunners. Murdoch bring that shot gun with me."

Thorne and Murdoch began to run, the high pitched buzzing whine of the Wraith darts still very audible even inside the city, the dull thud and clatter of weapons fire also sounding more muted. The ground shook a little as there was a nearby explosion, probably something crashing into the city nearby. They turned the corner and found Sergeant Maxwell with a group of green clad Earth force troops.

"Alright Sergeant, set up both sides of this corridor." Thorne ordered. "Set up a kill zone in the intersection and prop up some claymores at the far wall."

The soldiers moved quickly, it was an intersection of three corridors with Thorne's people occupying one, the second rigged with claymores and the third open for the Wraith to come down. The Marines took up position finding cover behind supports and pillars leaning out with their rifles in preparation. Murdoch was quite near the front with orders to use his weapon to maximum effect, which meant waiting until a small group of wraith cluttered together.

They heard them before they saw them, a steady thumping of feet as the Wraith strode towards the defence installation with all the haste of a Sunday stroll. Either they had no concept of mobile warfare or they simply didn't care, dismissing the defenders as no obstacle or threat. That greatly angered Murdoch, he didn't like being written off as a threat and would make the Wraith regret it. The footsteps grew louder indicating the Wraith making them were pretty big, the briefing had said they were both tall and very strong and it would be fatal to engage them in hand to hand, even for a unit as tough as the 509th.

Then he saw them, ten Wraith pounding down the corridor lead by a tall and confident looking officer. Behind him the remaining Wraith wore bizarre masks over their features like a chitinous web and carried bulbous looking weapons. They advanced without a word to the intersection, if they saw the Marines they made no effort to counter them.

""Take 'em down!" Thorne suddenly ordered, and with that command the Marines engaged.

The corridor went from dark to flickering red in a heartbeat as bolts of energy were blasted towards the Wraith with a rippling hiss. The officer Wraith darted out of the way down the side corridor exactly as Thorne predicted followed by two slower moving guards. The front three Wraith were deluged in plasma fire, struck again and again by the burning energy and taking an obscenely long time to die. After absorbing a dozen rounds or more each they collapsed to their knees and thumped down on the floor.

"Fire in the hole!" Sergeant Maxwell warned and hit the detonator for the claymores. The second corridor exploded in grey smoke and white flashes, tiny projectiles bouncing like hail from the metal walls and shredding any Wraith in their path. The scene was nightmarish with smoke, echos of the explosion and the smell of burning thick in the air. Murdoch relied on his helmet sensors to cut through the smoke and keep the Wraith visible to him, by now just two were left clustered in a corner forced back by the blast. This was his moment and without hesitation he raised the shotgun and fired. The weapon used a liquid propellant rather than solid cordite or gunpowder and was far more powerful and efficient, it launched its fletchettes at the two Wraith with tremendous power and pierced them without any resistance, throwing them back and slamming them into the wall. They slowly slid down to join their comrades on the floor.

"Move forward and secure the area." Thorne ordered. "Be careful, don't get too close."

The Marines darted forward keeping their weapons on the fallen Wraith, the claymores had done a good job on most of them along with Murdoch's shotgun, they were very clearly dead and not a pretty sight. They nudged the Wraith who had been killed by conventional fire until satisfied they two were dead.

"Captain!" a private called. "Live one!"

Thorne quickly moved towards the man, as did Murdoch. "Give me some space." She ordered. "keep your distance."

She found the Wraith commander wearing a fuller uniform and no mask laying on the floor, his chest badly wounded. He had escaped the worst of the Claymore blast by hiding behind one of his slower witted guards but the impact had still hit him, cutting through the leading soldier and reaching him anyway. Dark blood bubbled through needle like teeth as he watched the black haired human stand over him.

"Do you have a name?" Thorne asked.

The Wraith hissed and smiled with its fangs, moving its head back and forth like a predatory bird.

"How many of you are attacking this city?" she continued. "How many fighters, how many troops, how many leaders?"

It gave a hacking laugh. "I do not answer to prey."

"And I hate talking to losers, but here we are." Thorne nodded. "How many?"

"I will not tell you." It snarled.

"Then we do this the hard way." Thorne shrugged and began to look into the creatures mind.

The Wraith laughed. "Another human who thinks it can look into my mind?"

"You know it's quite empty here." Thorne said. "I shouldn't be surprised after watching your tactics."

The Wraith hissed. "You wish to look into my mind? So be it!"

Thorne winced a little as the Wraith tried to push through her defences, she set up blocks and steadied herself, keeping the access points into her mind firmly sealed. The officer was trained to resist the most extreme interrogations including assaults that would leave others as vegetables. In a war of the minds Thorne was an accomplished master of battle.

"Now that was just bad manners." She grimaced and began her own attack, probing the edges of the Wraith's consciousness. It hissed and snapped but hadn't experienced such a mental attack before, there was very little it could do as Thorne pushed through its barriers and linked into the hive consciousness.

"Now this is something new." She said. "I can see inside the Wraith ships, there are plenty more fighters and troops up there, this isn't good."

"Shall I make a report to command Ma'am?" Sergeant Maxwell asked.

"Yes, tell the Colonel there are at least three more waves to deal with based on numbers alone, maybe much more. Enemy troops are in the thousands, and they are very determined to take this place."

"Got it Captain."

She blinked and broke the connection, the Wraith before her exhausted with the effort of trying to resist her. "It will not help, it will not save you!"

"I have no need for you anymore, Sergeant."

Thorne stepped aside and headed back towards the defence station, behind her Maxwell put a burst of fire into the Wraith's head.

"Murdoch, come with me. Everyone else return to your posts and stay ready for another attack."

The chattering of gunfire grew gradually less and the whines of the Wraith darts faded away, a sort of silence descended on the city as the surviving attacker withdrew to try again later. There was still a hint of red light from glowing fires marking the impact points of crashed Wraith darts, damage control teams were now on their way to contain the blaze while the troops took time to catch their breath.

"Did I miss anything?" Kalikov asked as Murdoch returned.

"Nah, just some shooting." His friend replied. "And the Captain freaking out the rest of the platoon with the teep thing."

"Nice little trick she has there." Kalikov agreed. "Bit scary though, wonder if she ever reads our minds?"

"It's against the law."

Kalikov scoffed. "Like anyone is going to be able to bring her in! if she didn't fry their brains she'd just shoot them from a mile away!"

"Yeah well, glad she's on our side."

"No kidding." Kalikov agreed. "Think they'll be back?"

"I'd put money on it." He said, seeing the first rays of dawn in the distance. "probably in greater numbers."

"Our fleet should be here soon though, right?"

"If all is going to plan, yeah." Murdoch agreed. "But I guess we'll just have to dig in and wait."

"That's our job." Kalikov remarked. "I should have joined the navy."


	15. Chapter 7 The Siege Part 2

Atlantis

The sun had risen over the city casting into bright relief the tall towers and throwing long shadows over the ocean, to the more morbid the black shadows of the towers looked like spiky black fingers pointing away from the sun. the fires from the nights attack had been extinguished though twisting spires of black smoke still rose from the smouldering remains of crashed Wraith darts. The city itself was more or less intact, a sign the Wraith wanted it in one piece.

"Ten more minutes." Sergeant Maxwell told his troops. "Eat up and then back on duty."  
Privates Kalikov and Murdoch were sat in a corridor with their backs to the wall trying to get some rest. They fished out a re-heat pack and tore off the top initiating a reaction which heated the meal in an instant. The US Marines had gone green with envy at the Earth Force rations and when they got home they were going to petition the government to make new tanks and warplanes a second priority, and decent field rations were going to the top of the list.  
"If the timing is right the fleet should be showing up today." Murdoch said as he tucked in.  
"Yeah, like the navy ever arrives on time." Kalikov scoffed. "The only time they got the timing right was the civil war, and then only because both sides were late."  
Murdoch shrugged and shovelled in more food, time in the field had taught him to eat fast when he had the chance. "Took a lot to kill those Wraith."  
"Tough little aliens." Kalikov agreed. "So they wiped out the First ones over here?"  
"The Ancients, yeah." Murdoch kept eating. "The Major said it was weight of numbers."  
"Doesn't look all that good for us then does it? Five hundred guys on the wrong side of the galaxy?"  
"Five hundred guys with a fleet full of nukes and battleships on the way." Murdoch corrected. "We'll be cool."

"Grab your gear!" Captain Thorne ran past shouting, her voice harsh in the corridor. "Incoming, pick up your weapons! Report to defence stations!"  
"Great," Kalikov put down the meal. "I only got it half finished."  
Murdoch showed him the empty pack he had just finished. "Told you to eat faster. Come on."  
They put on their helmets and tuned into the company channel. These helmets were improvements on the older combat gear from previous decades but fulfilled the same function providing data links and full information sharing with the soldiers platoon. The main advantage was a holographic imaging system which created a minute holo display in front of the soldiers eyes, a barely noticeable twinkle of light which the wearer perceived as a full heads up display. Older systems required the wearer to drop down a full face plate, and while these helmets did have a retractable visor most Marines preferred to fight with an open helmet if atmosphere allowed.  
They hefted on their body armour designed to protect their vital organs and their combat harnesses filled with spare ammunition and medical supplies. Lastly the checked their weapons, the BilPro shotgun for Murdoch and the enhanced PPG rifle for Kalikov, along with a trusty knife each and a few grenades. They were well equipped and well trained, but the odds were still badly against them.

The defensive fire started up again with laser and rail guns engaging first before the Wraith craft were even visible. A few seconds later the first darts came into visual range, four of them falling from the sky in flames. The first wave began whizzing through the city trying to dodge the defensive fire, weaving between the towers with the weakest defences. The previous nights attack had the effect of pinpointing the cities main defences so this, the main attack, could do what they could to avoid them.  
The rippling waves of translucent energy flowed from the craft dropping down Wraith warriors who began infiltrating into the city. A pair of 50cal guns tore up a dart before it landed troops, but as they fired a companion ship soared in from above transporting the gunners up into the Wraith force.  
The city had expended much of its defences the previous day including its drones, but the commanders had kept one last surprise for the Wraith to buy time for the relief fleet.

"Duster lead in the air." Lieutenant Danny Reid announced. "All ships stay low and stay moving."  
With a flick of his controls he brought the Valkyrie gunship from its hiding place and moved out into the city itself, staying close to the structure around him. Valkyries were agile but slow and if they were caught in the open by fighters they were as good as dead, Reid was counting on the city to provide cover from the much faster darts.  
"Here's one, coming in low and fast." His front seater Sergeant McGee reported, as a gunship the Valkyrie had a separate gunnery officer in charge of the varied weapons fit the VTOL craft carried, usually a mix of anti tank and area affect missiles but for this mission they carried air to air weapons in addition to the fearsome cyclone pulse cannon, a weapon eclipsed only by the Thunderbolts gatling cannon.  
"Trying to sneak under the guns." Reid nodded. "Let's take him, shoot and scoot."  
The pilot nudged the Valkyrie from out of cover putting it right in the path of the dart, the surprised Wraith wasn't expecting an aircraft and quickly tried to point his nose gun at the Earth force jet. McGee was faster, opening up with the pulse cannons in a rapid storm of blue plasma tearing the dart to pieces in an instant.  
"Scratch one." Reid cheered and put his craft back into cover. "Find me another one."

Thorne lead the unit down the labyrinthine corridors of Atlantis, each platoon moving via a different route for safety. They were in the outer spokes of the city moving inwards to take up new positions. All the main defences were centred on the main control tower, from the laser batteries to the best defended checkpoints. With the main assault now in progress the outer portions of the city were being evacuated, trading ground for time.  
"Wait." She raised her hand bringing the two dozen following troops to an alert stop. "Cover positions." She waved to both sides of the Corridor. "Wraith inbound, we'll ambush them here."  
Murdoch and Kalikov flattened themselves against the wall in a crouch along with the rest of the unit focusing their weapons down the plain steel hallway. Quietly in the distance they could hear the stamping of Wraith warriors getting closer, once again walking with all the confidence of a race which believed itself the superior beings in this galaxy. Superior or not it wouldn't stop several hundred plasma rounds.  
The Wraith rounded the corridor at a brisk walk and strode right into the concentrated fire of the EA Marines. The Platoon engaged as one, given their orders through their tactical HUD system from their Captain each Wraith soldier took fire from four EA soldiers, with Murdoch's shot gun taking out their leader. For a few moments only the red haze of the plasma fire could be seen and the temperature of the entire corridor seemed to rise significantly as the troops liberally sprayed the area with their rifles.

"Hold fire!" Thorne ordered. "We're clear!"  
The end of the corridor was filled with smoking bodies from Wraith warriors, not an appealing sight but not as bad as the smell.  
"Gotta love having telepath at the helm." Murdoch cleared his throat with a swig from his canteen.  
"Precognition or something." Kalikov examined a dead Wraith. "Or I guess picking them up through walls?"  
"Who knows." Murdoch shrugged. "But it's cool for an ambush."  
His helmet comms gear beeped into life. "We're moving again." Thorne's voice commanded. "Follow your HUD map, Wraith force has been seen massing for an assault."  
"Great." Murdoch sighed and got moving. "How many of these guys are there?"

"Duster flight be aware, sixty contacts closing from the North." The air controller in Atlantis' central tower informed.  
"Oh great, ten to one odds." McGee snorted. "Where's a Banshee squadron when you need them?"  
"Same place the rest of our backup is, parked up on the fleet trying to get here." Lieutenant Reid answered. "Prep missiles, I'll take us up for a snap shot."  
The ungainly Earth Force gunship put extra power into its engines and rose up above the tower it was hiding behind. They were greeted by a sky filled with bright energy weapons and whizzing Wraith darts, two of the alien fighters racing by before they even noticed the gunship. Red lasers crossed the sky, two batteries forming a lattice in front of the central tower that sliced three darts out of the sky before they knew what was happening.  
"I've got six birds ready to fly, seekers active and locked." McGee reported calmly, a unit of darts heading straight for them.  
"Launch." Reid commanded and the aircraft shuddered a little as hardpoints released and the gunship's supply of missiles burst from the craft. The missiles were equipped with the latest seeker heads requiring no direct link to the firing craft, especially useful for the Thunderbolts they were designed for which rarely stayed pointing in one direction for long. They roared over the battling troops, dodged a tower and struck one dart each reducing them to glittering confetti.  
"Ah hell! Two on our six!" Reid called. "Hold on to something!"  
He dropped the gunship, cutting engines down to almost nothing and letting it physically fall from the sky only arresting the descend a few dozen feet from the ground, blue energy bolts from the darts passing overhead where the VTOL had been.  
"Pulse cannons ready!" his front seater called. "Just give me something to shoot at."  
"Here goes nothing." Reid grimaced and nudged the gunship sideways out into the open. The second he had a clear shot Sergeant McGee opened up with the cyclone cannons spitting a ferocious stream of plasma bolts up into the path of one of the darts. It took the hit straight on and spiralled out of control gouting flame.  
"Splash one!" McGee yelled. "Where's two?"  
"Coming in high!" Reid warned. "I'll try get you a shot!"  
The dart was coming in from almost directly above rolling down out of the blue sky, unfortunately the Valkyrie was built to take on tanks, not dogfight and didn't have the all round weapons and abilities of a thoroughbred combat jet. Its weapons were fixed forward and had a fairly limited weapons arc which further handicapped the VTOL, Reid was going to have to take a big risk.  
He increased power to full and pushed the jet up on a pillar of hot air, rising to the height of the tower and then dropped the gunships tail so it was pointing nose up into the sky straight at the Wraith dart. It was an insane move, with no downward force from the engines the Valkyrie began to slip backwards and literally fall from the sky with just a few seconds open to them before crashing tail first into the city they were assigned to protect.  
McGee wasted no time, firing with the nose mounted gun he dashed the Wraith ships nose with plasma and shredded the lightly armed cockpit detonating the attacker. Before it even finished exploding Reid was dropping the nose and levelling off putting every ounce of thrust into the main engines pressing the two person crew into their seats. It shook to a halt barely feet from the ground and Reid dodged quickly backwards, the burning wreck of their Wraith victim hitting the ground in front of them.  
"Hot damn that was cool!" McGee chortled. "Where did you learn that?"  
"Minbari tanks in the war." Reid was sweating with stress and fear. "You know those things can outfly our gunships? You learned a few tricks or you had a short career."  
"Duster flight be aware, forty plus bandits from the south." A disembodied voice warned.  
"Never rains but it pours." Reid sighed. "Weapons check?"  
"Two missiles and our pulse cannon." McGee replied.  
"Well let's get some use out of them, here goes nothing."  
The engines whined and the VTOL rose into battle once more.

"Move it on, move!" Captain Thorne could be very loud for such a slender woman. "Wraith are massing in a plaza, there is an elevated position for us to exploit, get there fast!"  
Her people ran through the corridors heading or the plaza, the tactical map had shown her it was surrounded by balconies and walkways which would let her troops pour down fire on the Wraith from above, but only if they got their before the Wraith moved.  
The left the insides of the towers and headed out into bright daylight, about a platoon were with the Captain while the rest of the Company were heavily engaged elsewhere. It wasn't much but they had plenty of firepower to haul around with them.  
"Movement!" Murdoch called from point.  
"Cover!" Thorne yelled, "Watch forward, do not fire until I order it!"  
The lithe Captain darted forward across the sun lit walkway around the side of a building, the EA motion sensors built into the combat gear had caught movement around a blind corner which could be Wraith, but which also could be allied troops or some of Teyla's native fighters. Thorne passed Murdoch and waved him to stay down while she checked it out.  
"Thunder!" she shouted the password that all alies had been given, she needed to be closer to tell if they were Wraith just by telepathy alone and with so much happening around it was hard to centre her mind.  
"Flash!" a brusque male voice answered correctly. Thorne looked cautiously around the corner and spotted a small group of US Marines from the SGC. They were lead by a tall soldier in full battledress carrying an assault rifle and grenade launcher. "Staff Sergeant William Peters, United States Marine Corps." He introduced quickly.  
"Captain Jill Thorne, Earth Force Marine Corps." His counterpart answered. "Where is your unit?"  
"Falling back to the central tower, we we're on our way to meet them Ma'am."  
"I'll be delaying that." Thorne said sharply. "A Wraith force is massing and I'm heading out to destroy them, we need your squad's firepower."  
"Yes Ma'am." Peters seemed to brighten at the idea of shooting Wraith.  
"Follow my point team." She was already waving a squad forward. "We're taking an elevated position, set yourselves up and stand by."

They ran on, now two sets of Marines thundering across the walkways above the great city. All around them energy weapons and tracer bullets crossed the sky often seeming close enough to touch. Darts crossed over too but fortunately seemed to be too busy and ignored them, focusing on the tight defences of the main tower.  
A massive roar blasted Thorne's ears as an Earth force gunship rose up next to the walkway, the brown and green VTOL looking very out of place amid the silver spires.  
"Down!" she yelled. "Keep away from the jet blast!"  
The mixed force lay down flat as the VTOL hovered nearby, with a scream it sent a trio of missiles rushing away in a blast of hot smoke following up with rapid pulse blast which filled the air with burnt ozone. Barely audible above the engines sound was a higher pitched whine of a Wraith dart, flashing bolts of energy racing past in the other direction. With a sudden flash of orange light one bolt hit the gunship severing the right hand side engine boom, the long piece of metal falling in flames to the ground.  
The gunship rolled out of control passing over the walkway with a blast of heat and dripping fuel forcing Thorne to cling onto the walkway to avoid being blown off before it dropped away on the far side and exploded at the base of a tower.  
"Get up!" Thorne ordered immediately. "Get up, stay focused, let's go!"  
She knew the troops had to be focused and couldn't spend time dwelling on the unfortunate gunship. It wasn't easy just to turn her back on the scene but they had a job to do and that involved killing Wraith, which would make it all better.

They made it to the Plaza and sure enough there were about a hundred Wraith gathered twenty feet below them checking weapons and preparing to move on the tower. An assault by so many Wraith in one place would be hard to stop for the strained defenders without heavy losses unless their numbers could be thinned a little.  
"Quietly." She ordered in a whisper. "First squad left, second right. US troops with me."  
They careful scuttled around the edge of the plaza trying to avoid attention ending up with about ten soldiers on three sides looking down on the Wraith, it was a strong position despite the three to one odds. Thorne watched them form up on her command HUD and prepare, the lower tech US troops staying close so the could benefit from her direct orders. She noted one of the troops had a hefty squad support machine gun and their belts were heavy with grenades.  
"Ready?" she whispered to Peters.  
"Ready." He confirmed thumbing the safety on his rifle.  
"Don't be shy with the trigger." She said. "Just kill them all."  
"Semper Fi Ma'am." Peters grinned.  
Thorne took a deep breath and then leaned over the railing at the edge of the balcony and got her first good look at the Wraith. They were closely packed and mostly consisted of the faceless brutes which characterised most Wraith forces, though there were plenty of the more sophisticated commanding Wraith too. In less than a second she lined up a target with her high powered laser rifle and burned a clean hole through the head of the first target, raising snarls of anger and alarm from officer Wraiths. They raised their eyes and ended up looking into three dozen gun barrels all stamped 'Made on Earth.'  
"Take 'em." She said calmly and pulled her trigger a second time.

The plaza descended into fire as a variety of weapons opened up as one, from PPG rifles to Submachine guns and Assault rifles. The Wraith were caught in the open without cover and even their resilient biology wasn't going to change the final outcome. The machine gun chattered beside Thorne firing tracers into the massed Wraith, the bright orange lines passing through the back and ricocheting wildly, often hitting more than one enemy on their journey. From their position a lot of rounds were hitting the heads of the Wraith troops dropping them quickly.  
The return fire was sparse, but at least one EA Marine was hurled backwards and upwards into a wall from the Wraith's heavy energy weapons. There was a sharp blast as Peters fired his grenade launcher taking out a small cluster of Wraith and then went for a hand grenade.  
"First squad, grenades." Thorne took Peters' example. "Fire in the hole!"  
The US marines and their EA brethren pulled their pins and threw the simple devices into the confused mass of surviving Wraith, the US Frag grenades hitting the ground and rolling to a stop before detonating. The EA ones did much the same, only a stabiliser inside made sure the grenade stopped upright, then a sub explosion fired into the air so it exploded at waist height sending an arc of shrapnel and fletchettes into the Wraith. The explosions ended the fight, with the few survivors picked off quite handily.  
"Good work people," Thorne congratulated. "That'll show them how a real army fights. We have orders to fall back to the central defence centres, lets make tracks."

The troops began to split into their squads and moved in stages, one squad covering a second as it retreated before exchanging roles. The general retreat was the final part of the plan, abandoning the extremities of the city and gathering on the vital areas such as power generators, heavy weapons points and the central control facilities. The Wraith were deploying troops in much greater numbers now the assault was fully underway and there was a serious risk of the individual companies of Marines getting cut off and destroyed, or worse.  
"Squad four, take corridor Bravo west." Thorne ordered through the headset. "Squad three go with them, everyone stay in touch and report any contacts."  
The Captain gestured for her last two escorts to follow her, as usual she was the last to leave after making sure her company was retreating in good order and following her own interpretation of the orders. So far no Wraith had been spotted but at least two squads from Delta Company had been ambushed by Wraith showing up from nowhere. Her troops would not suffer that fate.

"That's it Captain, all units pulling back!" Murdoch called, looking quickly over his shoulder. "Nothing behind us but open city and Wraith."  
"Time to go then." She said with a clipped voice. "Watch yourselves and stay with me."  
Murdoch, Kalikov and Thorne made their way back keeping a fast but cautious pace, like the squads ahead the moved in stages with one covering the rear while the others pulled back, Thorne watching the overall situation on her commanders HUD system. She was pleased to see her front units had made it back it took a valuable second for her to register the Psychic warning which blared in her mind.  
She was leading the retreat, with Murdoch five feet behind her and Kalikov a dozen feet further back covering their rear. The danger she sensed came not from there, but from immediately to her right hand side. With a rapid reaction she snapped her laser rifle up and spun the stock around into an open doorway, feeling it connect with something solid.  
The Wraiths head spun sideways, Thorne's strike would have shattered the skull of a Narn, but the Wraith merely turned back to look at her and grinned a bloody smile. With all the speed her special forces training could muster she turned her rifle to point the muzzle at the Wraith, but not fast enough and with brutal strength it knocked the rifle clean out of her hands and punched her in the stomach hard enough to force her to stagger back.  
It all happened in a matter of seconds and took Murdoch totally by surprise. He skidded to a halt as he recognised his Captain was in trouble and tried to get a shot off with his support weapon, but the Wraith was inhumanly fast, and two seconds after Thorne hit the ground Murdoch was sailing through the air to drop unconscious at the far side of the corridor. The green hued alien bared its teeth with a grin of assured superiority and moved on the last Human still standing.

Kalikov had time, just seconds but it was longer than the other two members of his company. He spun around and pointed his PPG at the advancing alien. "Eat Plasma ET!"  
He depressed the trigger and sent a stream of burning hot bolts into the creatures chest, the heat searing through its clothes and charring the flesh beneath. It didn't even slow down, walking on as if it was walking into a slight hail storm with a look of utter hatred on its features. Kalikov had put seven rounds into its chest with no notable effect before it reached him, snatching the rifle from his hand and grabbing his chest. With a sneer it dug its talons through the woven armoured vest and began to absorb his life force.  
With a sudden roar it stopped and released him. Before Kalikov dropped to the floor in unconscious exhaustion he noticed the creatures forearm had a combat knife jutting out. He didn't have time to find it amusing, but on another day he would have laughed and thanked the heavens. Instead he hit the floor and did not move.

The Wraith winced with pain and anger as it took Thorne's knife out of its arm and tossed it aside. The Earth force Captain was holding a second equally vicious looking blade in her right hand keeping a steady distance.  
"Come on." She smiled. "try me."  
The Wraith attacked, moving with swift powerful strides reaching out for her. She ducked and rolled past the creature on its left side jumping up and slashing her knife in a wide arc drawing blood from the creature. It arced its back and roared, flailing with its claws and narrowly missing Thorne. She backed away and tried to focus her mind for a psychic attack, projecting a sensation of burning flames into the Wraiths mind.  
If it worked it had no effect, pushing through the pain it hit her with a vicious uppercut catapulting the Earth force officer up into the air and dropping her six feet away, separating her from the knife mid flight. She crashed hard on her back with a sharp exhalation and in an instant the Wraith was bearing down on her, claw outstretched. She performed a scissor kick from the floor, catching the Wraiths legs and dropping it hard to the deck. Thorne leapt up and capitalised on the Wraiths weakness putting all her weight behind an unsophisticated stomp on the creatures throat.  
It snapped its hands up and caught her foot on the way down, holding it away from its neck and twisting, once again pushing the officer off balance and down to the ground. She back kicked into the Wraith's face buying a few more seconds and scrambled up to her feet and turned in time to face the enemy as he too stood. It was grinning like a lunatic, clearly revelling in the fight.  
"Alright scum bag, see how you like this."  
She unleashed a powerful psychic attack, the ultimate assault a human telepath of the highest order could manage. It had the power to literally turn a sentient into a vegetable but before she could focus the Wraith had struck her with brain shaking force, and not only did she loose her focus she very nearly lost consciousness. Her training had reached a state where counter attack was reflex and she launched a powerful spinning kick which caught the Wraiths head slowing it but not stopping it. It physically grabbed her, picked her up and held her so close she almost retched at the smell of its breath. Then it threw her once more and she skidded to a halt on her stomach. Her eyes shot up, and were caught by Murdochs assault shot gun lying just inside her reach. Her hand flashed out and grabbed the weapon, rolling on her back she brought it up with the Wraith barely three feet away.  
"Goodnight arsehole." She grimaced and pulled the trigger, the close range fletchettes catching it in its chest and hurling it back in a bloody mess.

"Damn I hate those guys." She winced.  
A low growl suddenly caught her attention, and she glanced quickly to her side. From outside the doorway another Wraith had emerged and was thanking its luck at the feast prepared for it. Before she could do anything else the Wraith was sharply hurled forward to collide with the wall. A soldier in old style army camoflage was right behind it and pit a fast punch into the small of its back forcing a pained cry from the Wraith.  
It spun and lashed out, the soldier leaning his head back and just avoiding the strike, then returned the favour jabbing the Wraith in it's head. He punched it three more times with incredible strength stunning the creature before kicking it hard in the stomach forcing it to double over. He moved forward, grabbing the creature in a headlock before tightening the grip and jolting the Wraith up, snapping it's neck with a dull crack.  
"What?" Thorne frowned. She was on the edge of losing consciousnes but she could still tell what was real and imagined. The Wraith were physically very powerful, and as she had found even a special forces trained soldier had no chance against one in hand to hand. "Peters?" she recalled the name of the man, one of the SGC troops who had joined her command.  
"Turner, Rose!" he yelled back. "Get over here, men down!"  
"How did you…?" Thorne began.  
"Don't move Captain, we'll get you out of here." He reassured her.  
"Wait, you killed the Wraith, how?"  
"It's my job Ma'am." He said with a tone which suggested he was in no mood to discuss it.  
"Just what the hell are you?"  
"I'm a United States Marine Ma'am." He answered bluntly.  
Thorne managed a small laugh. "Semper fi."  
Peters was definitely hiding something, but she had no desire to go through his mind and find it for herself. He had saved her and that certainly demanded gratitude and respect. But when this was done they were going to have a very long talk.

"Duster flight," Reid called up. "Check in."  
"Duster three still here." one of his VTOL's replied.  
"Duster Four check."  
After a few moments he guessed that was it. "Alright flight, converge on the central tower. Anyone got any missiles?"  
Both ships answered in the negative.  
"We still got the cannon." McGee patted his control board. "We can have some fun."  
"This is central command to any Valkyries, anyone there?" a voice spoke on the comms system.  
"I read you." Reid answered. "Go ahead."  
"Wraith concentrating in section G, any assistance will be appreciated."  
"Understood." He answered. "Duster three, you with me?"  
"Coming up on your Seven." His team mate confirmed.  
"Duster four stay put, Three cover me." Reid commanded. "Alright McGee, lets add some more marks to the tally."

The two gunships dipped their noses and roared ahead between the towers, still the volleys of defensive fire blasted overhead and still the Wraith attacked. The city was scarred and smoking but in better condition than Reid expected. He'd seen combat in cities before, most of the time there was little left at the end.  
The flew by low enough to spot EA troops filing into the tower and sealing the doorway behind them, apparently the last ones to leave the city. Apart from a few strong points it now belonged to the Wraith, which on the plus side meant collateral damage was no longer an issue.  
"There they are." McGee read off the scanners. "Wraith ground troops."  
"Spin up the pulse cannons, lets give them a nice warm reception."  
The gunship dropped to the deck and closed in, its wing mate holding back and watching for darts. The Wraith gathering for the assault heard it coming but had no where they could escape to, they called for back up but it was too late. Reid brought the gunship up in front of the formation, taking a few weapons hits with no ill effects.  
"Fish in a barrel." McGee grinned and opened fire.

The cyclone pulse cannons would have torn apart light armoured vehicles, against ground troops even as resilient as Wraith it was shocking over kill. The storm of blue bolts cleared the Wraith away in seconds leaving the charred remains piled up in the far corner of their landing zone, flung there by the power of the rapid fire cannons.  
"Atlantis command this is duster leader, targets destroyed."  
"Confirmed." The female voice replied, perhaps Doctor Weir herself. "Be advised there are additional darts on their way."  
"Tell me something new." McGee muttered.  
"Okay dusters, form up in front of the tower." Reid ordered. "We're running out of places to fall back to."  
The Three remaining VTOL's converged on the main tower and took up a hovering position facing the new Wraith assault. Above and around them huge amounts of fire rose up undaunted and unwearied by the long assault. Wraith fighters fell from the sky in flames but ever more were there to replace them.  
"We're down to about a quarter of our fuel left." McGee commented.  
"I get a feeling we won't need it." Reid said bluntly. "Take as many as we can, and if it comes to it I'll ram one of the bastards."  
"Aye sir." McGee acknowledged. "To hell with the lot of them."

Major Shepherds plan had seemed like a good one, and it was a guaranteed way to take out one of the hive ships. Sadly it did suffer from one small flaw. He was going to die.  
Ultimately he had expected that one day that could happen, he wore the uniform of the United States Airforce and while that did give him the chance of flying some awesome jets, seeing interesting places, and virtually assured success with girls in bars it also carried the possibility of getting reduced to small tiny pieces and scattered across thousands of miles. Or in this case vaporised in a nuclear explosion, which he had to admit was quite a way to go. He hadn't wanted it, but he had accepted it and the cause was justified enough for him to take the mission without hesitation.  
He eased the jumper into position beneath the bulk of the hive ship, its presence dominating his view. Darts skipped back and forth as they landed to rearm or launched in a fresh wave of strikes against the beleagured city. The Wraith wanted it in one piece to further their hunger for human life, and that had made Shepherd sick. He moved into position, and set the detonation sequence on the bomb.

00000000

Battlecruiser _Daedalus_.

"Colonel sir, approaching destination, two minutes until arrival at co-ordinates."  
Caldwell settled himself into the central chair of the ships bridge, a layout which combined the practical experience of naval warships and just one or two passing nods to science fiction TV shows. He took a look outside the forward window, looking out at the long bow of his ship beyond. His ship, and a proud vessel she was too with a good kill record already facing a race called the Drakh which no one had ever heard of until recently. For such a new ship she had seen plenty of action and made plenty of friends and enemies, which had turned her crew into quietly confident and skilled fighters.  
"Sound general quarters and set for battle stations." Caldwell ordered firmly and without hesitation in his voice. "Go to condition one and tell our fighter wing to standby for immediate launch. We'll be going in hot."  
"Aye sir." Major Karen Foster answered from her side station.  
Caldwell opened a comm channel to his Asgard engineer half hidden behind the sensor station he called home below decks. "Hermiod, how is the hyperspace bubble holding up."  
"Our reserves are almost depleted." The taciturn alien said. "If this were an Asgard ship it would not have been a problem."  
"No, I'm sure it wouldn't." Caldwell bit back a more scathing reply. "Will we have enough power to fight when we arrive?"  
"More than enough." Hermiod replied. "And we should arrive with the rest of the group in good order."  
The rest of the group being two Whitestar class ships, the _Warlock_ class _EAS Titans_ and the vast _Excalibur_ all on loan courtesy of President Sheridan. They were nestled in the _Daedalus'_ vastly increased hyperspace bubble and travelling the impossible distance along with the SGC warship. It was as much a risk as the battle itself, but they had to try and it looked like it was going to work.  
"Major, let our allies know we're almost there." Caldwell ordered, the muted lights turning down to a bluer shade to help the crew read the data accurately from their screens and displays.  
"All stations are checking in." Foster relayed. "We're ready sir."  
"Let's hope there is still a city there to save." Caldwell said quietly, his eyes still fixed on the maelstrom of hyperspace beyond. Either they were going to save the city, or they were going to be the steel toed boot of vengeance.

The cloaked Jumper eased into position almost inside the Hanger of the Hive ship, there were only seconds left until the mission was complete, and Major Shepherd could retire with full honours from the service. He even had his own firework show which made him smile slightly despite the situation.

"Major Shepherd!" A voice suddenly yelled into life on his speakers. "Decloak your jumper immediately!"  
The voice sounded human, American even, but the demand was ludicrous. He was almost on target just a few seconds from completing his mission and destroying the Hive ship. He wasn't sure how the Wraith could know his name, but he wasn't going to comply just like that. But if it was a human, he took a risk and replied on the same channel hoping the message wasn't being traced.  
"Who the hell is this?" he asked with little subtlety, this was hardly the time for manners.  
"Authentication Alpha, Charlie, One. Decloak now!" the American voice replied.  
If it was a trick it meant the Wraith somehow knew SGC codes. Hell they even knew the procedure for authenticating identity. If it wasn't a trick, if it was for real then it meant he might just make it to fight another day.  
He held his breath and decloaked.

The next instant he was somewhere else, not the puddle jumper but a different metallic room reverberating with the hum of electronics and filled with a large window onto space.  
"Major Shepherd?" a deep voice asked, causing him to turn and see a room full of humans. It was a starship control room.  
"Yeah, that's right."  
"Colonel Caldwell, Earth Battlecruiser _Daedalus_."  
Shepherd stood to attention in respect of the senior officer. "Sir, real good to see you sir."  
"Thank you Major, we're here to relieve the siege of Atlantis, though it looks like you're doing a pretty good job yourself."  
Beyond the window the Nuclear weapon hidden in his craft exploded, immolating one of the Wraith ships.  
"One to go." Caldwell said, accepting the challenge. "Signal the fleet, weapons free, engage enemy targets at will."  
"You managed to get a fleet here?" Shepherd asked. "I'd heard you were bringing help, but not much more."  
"Well take a look out there, it promises to be quite a show."  
Shepherd followed his gaze and caught a glimpse of a ship moving into position beside the _Daedalus._ It was utterly gigantic, on the same scale as one of the Hive ships in place above Atlantis. Another equally large ship but with a much more flamboyant design was taking position on the other side, while smaller ships and hordes of fighters swarmed around them.  
"Colonel, enemy fighters on approach." Foster warned. "We have cruiser class ships breaking formation and heading our way."  
"Understood." Caldwell replied. "Activate rail guns and interceptors, ready main batteries and get our fighters out there."

Atlantis

The explosion was enough to be seen from the city, lighting the towers and causing the defenders to look away briefly. The sky blazed in a double sunrise before gradually fading to the normal dawn light.  
"He did it." Weir said solemnly, her mind touching on her memories of her lost friend and the growing knowledge there would never be any more memories to add. It threatened to overwhelm her and she had to fight hard for control, despite this bitter victory the crisis was not over.  
"Yeah, he did." Even McKay was subdued, the usually garrulous man lost for more than a handful of words he spoke automatically, his mind locked on the decreasing explosion in orbit.  
"Doctor Weir!" One of the technicians shouted. "I'm picking up another ship!"

Weir's chest grew empty, almost as if her heart was in free fall away from the rest of her body. After all that it hadn't changed a damn thing. "Another Hive ship?"  
"Negative, I'm picking up an IFF." He replied.  
Weir's mind froze, an IFF meant this was a friendly ship, an Earth ship.  
"Doctor, more contacts." The operator continued. "You really need to see this."  
"Atlantis, this is Shepherd." A voice announce don speakers, it was an announcement they had heard a hundred times but had never expected to hear again.  
"John?" Weir asked, hope and expectation overriding her confusion.  
"How many other Shepherds do you know?" the reply betrayed amusement and relief.  
"No, that can't be!" McKay blurted. "We saw the hiveship go up!"  
"I assure you Doctor McKay that Major Shepherd is alive and well." The unfamiliar voice confirmed a little like a schoolteacher repeating something to his students for the twentieth time.  
"Who is this?" Weir wondered, mind alert again.  
"Colonel Steven Caldwell, Commander of the _Daedalus_. We are here to assist you, and we brought some friends."  
"I assume we have you to thank for saving major Shepherd?" Weir responded to the voice  
"We were monitoring your transmissions as soon as we came out of hyperspace but we couldn't beam him in until he decloaked his jumper." Caldwell returned.  
"It didn't take much convincing." Added Shepherd from orbit.  
Caldwells voiceagain took over. "Doctor Mckay?"  
"Here, present." His head snapped up, almost as if he could see the warship high in orbit.  
"I'll trust you know what to do with this."  
With a bright flash and clap of sound two soldiers in US military uniforms arrived in the control room, taking the occupants completely by surprise. Before they can speak the leading trooper offered Rodney a large sealed box.  
"Your ZPM sir." He announced with little formality.  
Dr Carson blinked a couple of times just to make sure the newly arrived Marines were actually real and not some hallucination brought on by stress and insomnia."How did they do that?"  
'Daedalus is loaded with Asgard technology," McKay answered while turning the ZPM over in his hands. "The beaming technology is only the first part of it they've got things like-"  
"Rodney," Shepherds voice interrupted. "What saw we get the shields up?"  
The scientist nodded in agreement with a wide grin."What say we."  
Wier however was not immediately convinced things were starting to work out, as a leader it was her job to make sure all the facts were considered."But we still have wraith all over the city."  
"After we deal with this fleet we'll assist you as soon as we can, We have a multinational force in substantial numbers ready to land. Until then just hold as long as you can. Caldwell out."

0000000

Outside the control room the battle continued unabated with no knowledge of the conversation that had just happened. The darts swept in, targeting the defending Valkyries with their forward weapons and preparing to fire.  
"Pulse cannons locked and ready." McGee confirmed. "Just give the word sir."  
"Let 'em have it Sergeant, send them to hell."  
The three VTOL's opened fire, ripping into the Wraith formation and adding their power to the defence grid. They brought down several darts but could not stop the tide of the attack, the Wraith swarming onwards and entering their weapons range.  
"One more volley Sergeant." Reid ordered. "Make them pay for it."  
The pulse cannons spoke again, by now the Wraith almost on top of them. Two more darts dropped before suddenly a sheet of flame burst across the front of the attack, Wraith fighters blazing into destruction and crashing into the sea in scores. The assault wave broke up, Wraith ships scattering in confusion as the heart of the attack was cut out by a massive missile strike.  
From behind the tower an incredibly loud roar shook the walls and forced many of the gunners to plug their ears. With a flash of afterburners a squadron of Thunderbolts stormed overhead spitting missiles and gatling pulse cannon rounds into the broken Wraith attack. The Earth force fighters tore clean through the darts before pointing their noses skywards and powering up back into orbit to rejoin the battle certain to be unfolding there.  
Even through the cockpit and over the jet engines Reid could hear the noise, that of cheering. It wasn't over yet but the whole game had just changed. Even before the fighters had returned to orbit leaving the few remaining darts to the city's defences the word had spread between the defenders. The relief fleets had arrived.

00000000

Across the deck of the _Daedalus_ the different weapons and tracking systems began picking up on a myriad of incoming enemy vessels, the combined SGC and EA sensor packages working together to identify and lock on to the highest priorities. Point defence rail guns and interceptor cannons ground into life while the ships brand new heavy rail cannons and laser batteries armed themselves. Gifts from Earth force the two rail guns were mounted centreline for over a hundred metres along the forward hull and were slightly modified versions of the sixteen inch guns on a _Warlock_. The two laser turrets attached to the sides of the flight pod struts were taken straight from a crippled _Omega's_ secondary batteries and could fire both pulse blasts and a sustained laser beam. With a little tweaking to the power feeds they had made what Earth Force considered a defensive weapon into something almost as good as the _Omega_ class forward guns which were five times the size.  
The extra versatility in the weapons load out and the ability to coordinate it with new computers made the ship a very deadly opponent against any enemy. The ship had already proven its shields could keep it in battle for a long time, and it's speed would help it out of trouble, but the 303 and 304 class had been seen to lack a real bite. They had a phenomenal missile package, but delivering it with the primitive missiles was not easy, and the standard rail guns weren't going to be much good against bigger targets. Earth had ships that were almost indestructible, but had a hard time fighting back.  
Not any more. Now the SGC had refitted the _Daedalus_ and _Prometheus_ with some true offensive weapons and the next batch of ships already nearing completion thanks to assistance from Garibaldi's heavy industrial technology used to speed up their build times Earths defence fleet was looking very healthy.

"Targets locked, ready to fire." Foster reported.  
"Rail guns, fire at will." Caldwell said. "Hold the interceptors for counter battery fire."  
The first batch of Wraith darts ran into a concentrated volley of fire from the _Daedalus_, tearing them from the sky with a single clean hit each. The following wave used their comrades glowing remains to try and disrupt the Earth vessels sensor locks but found it only kept them alive for a few extra seconds. Those that made it close enough to take a shot hit the shield with a few blue bolts before falling to the point defences.  
One of the squadrons decided to try for another of the ships, sweeping in on the oblong vessel off to one side. The massive warship held its course and activated its own point defences, scores of small interceptor guns flashing in the darkness and setting up a thick barrage in the path of the darts. Their demise was as quick as the ones attacking _Daedalus_.  
"Lieutenant Miguel." Caldwell moved onto the next phase of the plan, satisfied that his ship could defend itself from the attack he would now see if the Wraith vessels could do the same. "Get me a firing solution on the closest Wraith cruiser, four rounds from our heavy rail guns, conventional ammunition."  
"Aye sir, locking target."

The Wraith cruiser was smaller than a hive ship but it still greatly out massed the _Daedalus._ Ten of them had broken away from the orbiting force and were proceeding confidently, perhaps arrogantly, towards the allied vessels.  
"Rail guns locked." Miguel said, the whole ship having to change its orientation to point the weapons in the desired direction.  
"Let 'em have it Mr Miguel." Caldwell ordered, failing to hide his anticipation  
The two rail guns engaged, throwing out their solid armour piercing rounds at ten percent of light speed. It was possible to fire the rounds much, much faster but for their first combat use Caldwell was playing it safe. Even so the projectiles hit with more than enough force to pass clean through the Wraith ship length ways, goring it from bow to stern and physically rippling the metal of the ship as the passed through, shaking it to pieces. The second two rounds were unnecessary, the cruiser was already dead in space and worthless.  
"Target destroyed sir!" Miguel called with enthusiasm.  
"Nice work Lieutenant, now lock on to another and do it again."  
Taking out a Wraith cruiser in two shots was certainly something to be proud of, but Caldwell couldn't risk losing time to celebrations, at least not yet.  
"New target locked, rail guns ready."  
Caldwell nodded. "Take it out of my sky."

_EAS Titans_.

"Interceptors running safe, forward guns fully charged and ready to fire." Commander Morton spoke quickly.  
"Full fire charge from the particle cannons, then swing us hard to starboard." Ivanova replied. "All batteries ready for raking fire, warn the fighters to clear the way."  
The orders were despatched through the ship with practised skill, Ivanova's crew were intimately familiar with the workings of their ship thanks to her tireless drills and recent battle experience. They were among the best in the force and were expected to prove it out here beyond anywhere they had imagined. The orders filtered down to the weapons rooms and navigation facilities, each one widely spread across the ship to give the Destroyer redundant command in case the bridge was somehow knocked out despite it's heavily protected position in the hull.  
The ship lined its bow up on one of the Wraith cruisers, so far the enemy ships as held their fire as they sped forward to close the range, only the fighters had tried to engage with little success. The _Titans _interceptors brought down four more darts as her course steadied and the Particle cannons prepared to fire.  
"I have two targets at Four degrees and six degrees, we can take them both together." Morton pointed out. "We are in range and ready to engage."  
"Main batteries," Ivanova paused for a second, hopefully the Wraith weren't going to have an answer for this. "Fire!"  
There was a slight reduction in lighting and gravity, noticeable enough so her stomach seemed to lift slightly as the cannons drew power from across the ship for the final stage of the firing sequence. It wasn't nearly as severe as the power drain from the _Victory_ class, but it was still a minor issue which would hopefully be fixed on the Beta model of the ship. The muzzles of the cannons glowed suddenly and intensely, gathering the immense energies and concentrating them enough so they formed the tight narrow beam of frightening ability. It took one more second to reach its critical stage, a heartbeat felt by the whole crew, then the guns fired.

The warship shuddered as the twin beams lashed out, the recoil system and sheer mass of the ship made the effects less than tests had suggested but the discharge still managed to shave a decent percentage off the ships forward momentum. The Wraith had picked up the energy build up and quite rightly guessed it was not going to be a god thing, but they had no more options left and there wasn't a thing they could do about it.  
Both ships took direct hits, the red beams piercing clean through them in a shower of burning gas and molten hull plates. One of the ships exploded violently almost immediately after, the other held on for a while longer until the _Titans_ forward motion caused the beam to move, slicing across the Wraith cruiser hull and eventually hitting something vital. And immolating the vessel.  
"Well," Ivanova rubbed her hands together. "That should have gotten their attention. Bring us about, all turrets engage at will."  
The Destroyer came about on a new course and began to move away from the fleet, raining pulse cannon and rail gun blasts down at the remaining Wraith ships as it did so. Some took hits, but by now the Wraith were taking evasive action and putting fighters between themselves and the Earth Force destroyer to soak up some of the firepower.  
"Five Wraith ships breaking to follow us." The first officer said. "They're closing at high speed, I think we made them mad."  
"I often have that effect on people." Ivanova smiled. "Switch pulse cannons to dispersion fire, keep them looking this way."  
"Aye Captain." Morton nodded. "I hope this works."  
"Not as much as I do." Ivanova remarked. "I've only just got used to this ship."  
The _Warlock_ turned away under a hail of fire, the Wraith ships now close enough to engage with their own weapons. Blue, orange and red fire sparkled across the void as the Wraith move din like wolves stalking a tiger.

**_Daedalus_**

"There they go." Foster said solemnly.  
For a few seconds all eyes fell on the _Titans_, either watching her on tactical displays or seeing the distant flashes through the window that marked her real position. The crew had seen Earth Force ships fighting before, but it was still an awesome sight to see nearly two kilometres of metal swinging around and firing every gun. Caldwell watched the Wraith fire back, rapid pulses of blue energy streaking back at the huge destroyer.  
"They've taken the bait." He said.  
"Bait?" Shepherd turned from the window.  
"Captain Ivanova volunteered to work as bait to draw away the Wraith escorts." Caldwell explained. "She guessed once the Wraith got a look at the guns on her ship they'd go all out to destroy it before it could hurt the hive ship, and that would mean ignoring us."  
"Which we want?"  
"Gives us a shot at the hive ship." Caldwell nodded. "Well, not us. Them." He gestured at the second larger but less solid looking ship. "We're going to go help out Captain Ivanova."  
"Good." Shepherd looked out at the developing battle. "Glad we aren't leaving them alone I mean sir."  
"I understand Major." Caldwell dropped his head in agreement. "Alright helm, Lets close on those Wraith cruisers and hit them from the flank, take some of the heat off our friends."  
The _Daedalus_ and her two Whitestar escorts throttled up, driving forward away from the _Excalibur_ and towards the _Titans_. The Destroyer was bathed in light as Wraith pulse cannons seared past or were neutralised by interceptors. Sometimes though a round would evade the defences and burst in a flash of energy against the heavy armour.  
"Release the fighters, have them watch our back." Caldwell ordered. "All guns fire as you bear."

The F-302's performed an overhead loop and swung down behind the _Daedalus,_ falling upon a flight of darts trying to hit the warships engines. The nimble airforce jets and the highly trained pilots woefully outmatched the Wraith and cut them down in moments. Thunderbolts from _Excalibur_ joined the melee, spinning and twisting at high speed strafing the engagement zone and covering the Whitestars and allied fighters.  
"I have a firing solution." Miguel reported. "Engaging with main weapons."  
The _Daedalus_ rocked a little as its rail guns engaged hurling three thousand pound solid slugs at ten percent light speed towards the Wraith warships. One round missed, the other clipped the side of a vessel splitting it open like a zipper, emptying atmosphere and components into the void. She followed up with the Earth Force supplied laser cannons, bright red beams scoring the Wraith cruiser with a plume of molten metal and fire.  
"Switching to pulse cannons." Miguel informed.  
The Multi role turrets attached to the flight pods seamlessly ceased firing beams and turned to rapid bursts of orange plasma energy, each hit cratering and shredding the outer hull of the target. Deep within _Daedalus_ the auto loaders dropped two more rounds into the breech mechanisms on the rail cannons. They didn't have the _Warlock_ classes bulky semi automatic system for loading rounds using a giant cylindrical ammunition feed, but the lower rate of fire was made up for by the pure destructive ability of each shot.  
A second later the two hundred metre long guns burst into action, kicking out the heavy rounds and shattering the Wraith warship. At the same instant the Whitestars struck another, racing barely dozens of metres from its hull cutting it to shreds with neutron cannons and molecular disruptors. They sped past and performed a quick back flip cutting the Wraith ships bow weapons to ribbons while their organic armour absorbed the few rounds able to connect with the nimble ships.  
"Incoming!" Foster warned, then grabbed her console. The _Daedalus_ shook violently as the shields blazed with fresh impacts. "Wraith secondary weapons getting our range!"  
"Use the interceptors to take some strain off the shields, and continue firing!" Caldwell demanded. "Find me a new target!"  
Blue Wraith cannons met white interceptors as the _Daedalus _sped on, The enemy had more cannons than the ship had interceptors so some rounds were bound to get through, but the shields absorbed what interceptors and evasive action did not stop. The _Daedalus_ did not pause, and met every hit with another storm of its own pulse cannons and rail guns, charging forward in a halo of light and fire.

**_Excalibur_**

Lieutenant Matheson watched the battle unfold, quietly taking in the scene around the still new heavy warship. The Wraith vessels were focusing on the _Titans_ while the smaller human crewed vessels struck the flanks. They had drawn off most of the escort fleet and now left just two cruisers between the _Excalibur_ and the massive Hive ship that represented their primary target.  
"Captain, the enemy is right where we want them."  
"So they are Lieutenant." Captain Matthew Gideon stroked his chin briefly with his hand, weighing up the best tactic to use in this situation. "I think its time we delivered the big finish, increase speed to flank, activate defence grid and prepare to fire on the lead cruiser."  
The deceptively slender looking warship began to move alone towards the battle, its gravitic and advanced ion engines straining into life. Looking like a grey and silver dart it zeroed in on the two Wraith escorts, it's gun turrets rising up to ready stations and interceptors scanning the sky around the ship.

"You know this is exciting."  
Gideon refused to show surprise at the familiar voice beside him. "You know you really should wear a collar with a bell."  
Galen grinned widely. "Now where would my sense of awe and mystique go if I jingled everywhere I went?" The technomage stepped closer and observed the tactical display, even though he was fully aware of how the battle was going thanks to the link to his ship. "It certainly wouldn't do to inform enemies of my location, and I fear the tinkle of my arrival would not serve to inspire terror in those who invoke my wrath."  
"But at least it will stop you sneaking up on me." Gideon replied. "What do you think of the Wraith?"  
"Interesting race, I'd like to take a look at one up close some day." Galen nodded. "But I'd rather see Atlantis first."  
"They're telepathic." Matheson stated. "I can sense them, but I can't break through."  
"I really don't think you'd want to." Galen advised. "Probably simpler to shoot them."  
"Speaking of Captain," the first officer directed the conversation, "enemy in range."  
"Forward guns, you know the drill." Gideon relaxed a little in his command chair, happy to be doing his job. " Fire."  
The four Minbari neutron guns glowed to life lancing bright green beams at the Wraith vessel, the sheer strength taking it by surprise. Unlike the EA heavy weapons the Minbari cannons did not cause much collateral damage, they just cut from end of the cruiser clean through to the other. The Wraith ship spun out of control, the volley of beam fire never letting up and systematically cutting it to ribbons. Secondary explosions gouged the ship from the inside out, leaving nothing but floating junk.  
"Second cruiser taking evasive action." Matheson reported. "She's firing."  
"Interceptors, deal with it." Gideon commanded. "Bow guns, hit them again."

The rotary barrelled interceptor mounts sprayed a steady field of white energy bolts into the sky in front of the _Excalibur_ intercepting the majority of Wraith pulses, the armour taking the brunt of any that got through while reflecting away a great deal of the raw energy. Once again the bow guns engaged, and once again a Wraith ship fell to them, clearing the way to the hive ship.  
Dart fighters from the Hive ship swarmed forward, intent on doing damage to the Earth Force battleship, and in turn meeting the fearsome defences. They died in droves, cut down by interceptors or sliced out of the sky by the beam cannon turrets. Those that got through found their weapons all but useless and instead elected a more direct attack, plummeting into the ships thick hull.  
"Sir, shall I recall our fighters?" Matheson asked.  
"Negative, have them continue to cover the other fleet, we'll be joining them soon." Gideon was entirely focused on the Wraith Hive ship. "Sensors, what is she doing?"  
"Enemy flagship heading this way." The officer replied. "Reading multiple weapon batteries charging."  
"They want a fight." Galen noted. "If they had sense they should have run away by now."  
"Why don't they?" Gideon asked.  
"I suppose Atlantis must be as important to them as us." The mage shrugged. "Important enough to die for."  
"Well I guess we better make sure the dying is all on their side." Gideon stood from his chair and straightened his uniform. "Stand by to fire main gun, target enemy flagship."  
"Aye sir, power is available and weapon locked."  
"Fire."

The _Excalibur's_ engines dimmed and faded, lights grew darker and the interceptors ceased their fire. With a slow and ominous build up the Vorlon derived cannon awoke, tendrils of barely controlled energy fed through the ships drive system and erupted in concentrated streams converging at the bow. For an instant they waited, long enogh for the Wraith on the Hiveship to take a terrified breath in, then it discharged, lancing with green and yellow light towards the Wraith vessel.  
The beam knifed clean through it, passing through armour and structure in an instant. The energy surrounding the beam split the hive ship apart, vaporising every Wraith and sadly many imprisoned humans in its cavernous halls moments before the ships power systems broke out of control and destroyed whatever was left of the flagship.  
The battle paused seemingly to take in the demonstration of incredible violence. The glowing embers of the Have ship cooling and falling towards the planet. With the flagship gone the Wraith cruisers suddenly found themselves cut off from heavy support and now surrounded by powerful unknown starships.  
The destruction of the Hive ship was Ivanova's signal to stop running.  
"Hard about Commander, all guns concentrate fire and remove those targets from my sky."  
With a quick burst the Destroyer swung broadside on to the Wraith crossing the T of their formation. Every gun turned to face the enemy, powering up for a full powered shot. The bow cannons still needed a few minutes to charge but the _Warlock_ was armed with enough secondary weapons to keep it safe until the particle cannons were ready once again. Ivanova doubted they'd need them again.  
"Weapons locked, changing from suppression to direct targeting." Morton reported. "Firing."

The heavy guns spoke firing rapid pulses of plasma at the Wraith ships, no longer needing to draw them out the ship was firing at full power with the intention of doing as much damage as possible. The pulse cannons ripped into the front of two Wraith ships, punching through armour and splitting metal and bio organic material apart like confetti. The destroyer then turned its guns from pulse to beam mode, sending bright red lasers into the weakened enemy hulls. With the armour already gone the energy lances cleaved through the defenceless internal structure which offered no resistance. Secondary explosions gutted both ships, sending them out of control spouting flame from a hundred rents.  
The surviving Wraith ships saw they were surrounded and by now woefully outgunned. With fighters closing in and the smaller Human vessels already firing from range as they sped forward, their leaders decided the battle was lost. With a flash of light the left their ruined comrades and fighters behind to whatever fate had in store.

**_Daedalus_**

"Enemy forces disengaging." Major Foster said. "Two cruisers made it to Hyperspace, I read thirty two fighters left behind."  
"Send our air wing to deal with them." Caldwell ordered.  
"Yes sir, Captain Ivanova ordered her ships to do the same."  
Caldwell stood from his chair and came to stand beside Major Shepherd at the window.  
"Looks like we won." The Colonel said, a burning Wraith cruiser visible beyond the window glowing white and red as its air burned away.  
"Yes sir." Shepherd agreed. "For now. But those two cruisers will be back and they'll bring friends. And if we beat them more will come, then more, then more. It happened before, they'll do it again."  
"Then I guess we should make ourselves ready." Caldwell grunted. "We've got some extra resources now, more than one ship. Maybe whole fleets if we play our cards right."  
"Maybe." Shepherd nodded. "But I don't think its going to be enough." He looked at the planet in the distance. "We earned some room to breathe, but I don't know for how long. The Wraith will be back."


	16. Chapter 7 The Siege Part 3

Atlantis. 

This was the first time Ivanova had gotten a good look at the city since she had arrived a few hours ago. With the Wraith destroyed or driven away and the last resistance mopped up by the various fighter wings the skies were clear and quiet. The next stage of the operation was to gather on the city they had just saved and discuss future options, which from Ivanova's point of view meant who they had to go and kill next.  
Her shuttle took the long route down, flying in a shallow circle around the city so she could see it in entirety. It was huge, much larger than she had expected and it positively glistened in the light, the waves and rippling ocean around it danced with light further adding to the effect.  
"This jewel in a sea of silver." She remarked quietly.  
"Captain?" her pilot quizzed.  
"Just something a friend once said." She dismissed the question. It had been one of Marcus' poetic phrases he had a tendency to use, and those thoughts had no place in her mind while on duty.  
The shuttle made a full loop before lining up on the landing pad, a trio of escorting Thunderbolts thundering past overhead to make especially sure nothing affected the Captain's arrival. A second shuttle from the Excalibur was already on the pad and close by a Minbari flyer bearing the leader of the Ranger delegation was making it's final approach. The craft from the Titans slid into a hover and dropped its landing gear, then eased itself down onto the shining deck.  
"Atlantis." The pilot exhaled. "Who's have thought"  
"Not me." Ivanova shook her head. "Keep the engines warm, I doubt this is going to take a whole lot of time"  
"Yes Ma'am." The pilot said and set about flicking switches and dials as Ivanova moved to the exit.

She had to shield her eyes from the bright sunlight as she stepped off the shuttle, weeks of artificial lighting had made her more sensitive to the real thing and all the metallic surfaces around her really didn't help. She cursed beneath her breath about how even pleasant summer days now hated her and wanted her to suffer, then went to join the passengers from the other ships.  
"Captain Ivanova." The other Earth Force officer stretched out his hand. "Pleasure to meet you in person"  
"Captain Gideon." She returned the gesture. "That's a spiffy uniform"  
The man smiled and looked down at his black and red ensemble. "Standard issue for officers on Explorer ships, which I guess is what we are meant to be. We just carry a bit more firepower than most explorers"  
"There is a quote which sums up that belief." A figure stepped down from Gideons shuttle dressed in a long black coat. "Talk softly, but carry a big stick." The man had a bald head and the most piercing eyes Ivanova had ever seen. "It is our calling if you will, to negotiate if possible, and shall we say 'clobber around the head' if necessary"  
"Captain, this is Galen." Gideon answered Ivanova's question before she asked it. "He's a technomage, a man who uses science to"  
"I know technomages." Ivanova interrupted. "I met one or two on the station years ago, led by a man called Elric"  
Almost imperceptibly Galen's smile slipped for a second before returning. "He was my Mentor"  
"Was?" Ivanova picked the past tense phrase.  
"He is no longer with us." Galen said sombrely. "And everyday I wish it was not so"  
Ivanova stared intensely at him, she had a knack for cutting straight through the fake facades people put up to protect themselves and spot genuine emotion. In Galen she could see that he was sincere in his sense of loss, something that they had in common.  
"Company." Gideon pointed out, noticing a small group of soldiers heading their way.

The small group was a mix of SGC and EA troops, led by a dark haired female officer who snapped a smart salute at the assembled dignitaries.  
"Captain Jill Thorne, 509th Marine corps Regiment"  
"Captain Susan Ivanova, EAS Titans." The Russian replied. "This is Captain Matthew Gideon, Ranger Gilmore, and Galen"  
"If you'll care to follow me we'll get this meeting underway"  
She turned and headed back the way she had come, the newly arrived guests following on.  
"Are their still Wraith in the city?" Ranger Gilmore asked.  
"We're not sure, there is a good chance." Thorne answered. "Very nasty bunch, you don't want to run into one without an armed escort"  
As the Captain talked Ivanova had been examining her uniform. Two things had struck her, the first was the hated symbol of the Psi Corps on her sleeve. While the Corps was now defunct in the most literal of terms and telepaths were now free to join industry and the military they still had to wear that recognizable symbol. Failure to do so was considered a serious crime and would see the offender imprisoned. Whatever happened with the Corps the symbol was a reminder of it, and of what they had done to her mother. As far as Ivanova was concerned it was a stigma and she automatically distrusted anyone who had once served the Corps, no matter how unwillingly.  
The second badge however had the opposite effect, it was the badge of Alpha Company of the 509th, Thorne's regiment. They were not known for accepting anything but the most determined and usually border line homicidal from the most vicious places they could find. If the regular army were Alsations, and the special forces were wolves, the 509th was the ugly junk yard dog who could rip them both to pieces in a gutter brawl.

The 509th had been formed fairly late on in EA history just before the Mars rebellion of 2212. Their first combat experience had been confused and messy, and the Regiment did not aquit itself well. For a long time the unit was used as garrison forces and ship guards, and so it stayed until twenty years later.  
Thanks to proximity they were one of the first units into the Dilgar war landing on Tiree in Markab space on the fifth day of the war. With the initial landing zone secure the 509th was thrown into urban combat and found that it excelled in the close quarters fighting. The Dilgar were quickly stamped out and the 509th redeemed itself. The unit was one of the first on the ground at Balos, and in that nightmare campaign made a reputation for itself along side famous regiments like the 99th and 33rd. The 509th came out of that campaign with fewer losses than other EA regiments and a kill ration that had to be respected.  
The Minbari war was their worst challenge, with Bravo company trapped on Cyrus in the first days of the attack. They retreated with the other defenders and civilian colonists into the extensive mines and waged a bitter war of attrition against the Minbari warriors sent to root them out. The campaign was scene to the most brutal fighting in EA history, the human defenders not giving an inch and the Minbari losing their technological edge in the deep tunnels. It lasted the entire war, from the first days to almost a month after the surrender on the Line as the messages failed to get to the soldiers on both sides. The survivors of that battle were called heroes, and the current Regimental Master Sergeant was the senior survivor of that hellish fight.  
Alpha company had it's own adventure in the Minbari war. When Earth realized how badly they were outclassed they decided to try and capture a Minbari battlecruiser and so set up a number of ambushes using breaching pods hidden in debris. Nobody knows exactly what happened, but after the war significant Minbari wreckage was found in the area. It is believed that Alpha company actually made in onboard a Sharlin, and were on the brink of seizing the ship when the crew self destructed. Between those two companies the Regiments fame was assured.  
After the war the regiment adopted a new badge, a Minbari skull on a black background, a fearsome sign of the units heritage. Some badges were modified, if a soldier had a confirmed Minbari kill they would have one dagger for every enemy they had shot, stabbed or in some cases beaten to death. It was rare to see them now, only a handful of veterans had served into this new Earth Force but one of the escorts had a skull with three daggers, and Ivanova knew the Master Sergeant had an awesome eighteen kills, though most thought he had double that number unconfirmed from the tunnel wars. Even with so few veterans the unit was still Earth Forces best urban combat regiment and the natural selection for fighting inside Atlantis.  
But what had really caught Ivanova's eye was the fact Thorne had seven daggers on her badge stuck through the Minbari skull.  
"Captain Thorne, did you serve in the Minbari war?" she asked, on the face of it Thorne seemed a little younger than herself.  
"No Ma'am"  
"Yet you have kills from the Minbarii on your badge"  
"Yes Ma'am. I've killed Minbari"  
"But you weren't old enough to serve in the war"  
Thorne did not even break pace. "What makes you think I killed them in the war? Ma'am"  
Ivanova decided to shut up.

They walked further through the city, sometimes passing evidence of gunfire or explosives marring the structure. Any bodies had since been cleared up, but the echoes of the violence were still clear.  
"Looks like a hell of a fight." Gideon remarked.  
"Yes sir, it was sir." Thorne answered. "Word is there are more on the way"  
"That's what we're here to find out Captain." Gideon responded. "Right now we don't know one way or the other"  
They crossed a wide walkway between two of the spires, again showing them how impressive the view was. Half way across they were met by another uniformed man.  
"Captain Thorne." The man said. "We were wondering where you went"  
"Major Shepherd." She saluted. "I am escorting the Earth Force officers to the meeting. I thought they would appreciate an officer from back home"  
"Very thoughtful Captain." Shepherd smiled. "But as I remember you are supposed to be in the sick bay"  
"I feel fine sir"  
"Doctor Beckett has been wondering where you went. He was going to come out here, find you and escort you back to the sick bay with some very firm words. But he decided not to"  
"Why is that sir"  
Shepherd failed to hide a smirk. "Mainly because he's absolutely terrified of you. But your Colonel has given the same order, report to the sick bay Captain, and when you see Carson, at least try to act meekly and wounded"  
Thorne saluted, then marched curtly away.  
"Welcome to Atlantis." Shepherd stepped forward and took over. "I'm Major John Shepherd, I'm usually in charge of military operations here." He looked at the female in the group. "And I guess you are Captain Ivanova? That was quite a trick your ship pulled up there. Decoying a Wraith fleet was a major risk"  
"Yeah, but it was worth it to see the looks on their faces when we killed them." She smiled. "Well, if we could actually have seen them it would be good. As it is I settle for a happy mental picture of their surprised and shocked faces"  
"Well okay then." Shepherd quickly moved on. "Lets get going, it's not a short walk."

Captain Gideon had his attention split between looking in awe at the city and looking at his friend looking in awe at the city. It was rare he'd ever seen Galen look lost for words, or so enthralled by anything that it was a very new experience. Every corner brought a new passageway marked with script on the wall which Galen studied briefly as they passed.  
"You look like a cop in a donut factory." Gideon eventually commented.  
"I assume you are commenting on my child like wonder?" the Technomage replied. "It is one of the eternal joys of this universe that some things still pleasantly surprise me. And it's curse that some things still hold unpleasant surprises"  
"So is this all entirely new"  
"In fact it is several million years old, a similar age to the gate we arrived through and built on Earth." Galen explained. "It has weathered remarkably well wouldn't you say"  
"Wait, wait wait." Gideon raised his hands '"Several Million years"  
"Certainly." The mage smiled widely. "This is probably the oldest construction either of us has seen. Well, with one notable exception on my part"  
"But that makes this place First one level technology"  
"Possibly beyond." Galen remarked. "The high era of the people who built this place matches with the height of the greatest First ones back home, before the ruinations of war became too great"  
Gideon let slip a small laugh. "So this is exactly what we were meant to find! Our mission was to locate technology as old as the plague that hit Earth. This is it"  
"It may have information we can use, but this place has much more potential than that." Galen pointed to a wall. "The script there has links to Latin, Etruscan and Mayan languages. Long dead of course but once common on our own planet. If this language was the root of those words from antiquity, how did they come to be used across realities on our Earth"  
Gideon blinked. "So you think we aren't the first to crossover"  
"My dear Captain, that was obvious. The real question is what happened when they did."

"So you guys are from a different dimension?" Shepherd asked. "I mean that's cool. We've had aliens, soul sucking creatures, angelic beings, oh and bugs, don't forget bugs. But you are our first extra dimensional guests"  
"Well to be technical it is a parallel reality." Galen informed. "Identical in most respects save for one or two points of divergence"  
"Uh-uh." Shepherd nodded. "By the way, those were some cool ships. You got many of them back home"  
"About fifteen." Ivanova replied. "Fifteen thousand"  
Shepherd gazed at her slack jawed.  
"Well most aren't that big, they're tiny things three or four hundred metres long"  
"Oh, that tiny." Shepherd nodded, considering something bigger than a super carrier to be quite large really.  
"And with war losses we're a little under strength." Gideon added. "But Earth Alliance prides itself on having one of the biggest fleets in the galaxy, and some of the fastest production yards"  
"Let's hope the SGC can match that one day. Earth isn't the most popular place in the galaxy." Shepherd said. "Apparently we have plenty of enemies out here"  
They entered the final corridor and stepped into the conference room, Weir was already there pacing with her arms folded while the bases two foremost scientists were busy working at computer stations.  
"Aren't you supposed to be getting some sleep Rodney?" Shepherd gently chided.  
He sat back and rolled his eyes. "I was trying to do just that until someone thought I should know the deep space sensors were up and running"  
"Yes, and?" Weir asked.  
"Wait, who are these people." Rodney interrupted. "They're Earth Force, the relief fleet." Shepherd cut in. "What did you find"  
"Hive ships." His Czechoslovakian compatriot reported. "Thirty of them"  
"And escorts." Rodney added. "They'll be here in, oh give or take thirty six hours"  
"Well, that kinda sucks." Shepherd grunted.  
"Those are steep odds, even with the resources at our disposal." Galen intoned.  
"Who's Captain Obvious here?" Rodney asked sharply. "Nice outfit by the way"  
"Thank you, it has well tailored lines." Galen smiled widely. "I was being sarcastic, something I happen to be known for"  
"No, you were making a genuine compliment." Galen's smile did not waver. "I tend not to take chides and insults well"  
Gideon nodded. "Yeah, really. I mean that guy on Io"  
"Shall we just carry on?" Weir stepped in. "Rodney, get Colonel Caldwell down here, he'll want to hear this. Zelenka, I want a full report on our defences. Quickly people, the clock is ticking."

A few minutes later Caldwell collapsed back into his chair after hearing the news. "Thirty hiveships"  
"And escort." Zelenka added.  
"The cruiser that got away must have called for reinforcements." Shepherd grimaced.  
"Our research shows there are at least sixty Hiveships in this part of the Galaxy." Rodney explained. "Who knows haw many more could be on the way"  
"At least the shield is up and running." "Which only buys us time." McKay snapped "I like time." Shepherd emphasised.  
"Me too." Added Galen. "Please continue"  
"Look," Rodney sounded excasperated. "The first siege lasted for years. I mean with one functioning ZEDPM we can't hold on for that long"  
"Can we submerge the city again?" Caldwell suggested.  
"It's a city, not a yo-yo." McKay shot back. "I don't even know how they did it the first time"  
"Can we fly it out of here, same way it arrived?" Gideon wondered.  
"I doubt we have the power, let alone the know how." Zelenka answered.  
"How long until they arrive"  
"A little over a day." Weir offered.  
Major Shepherd dropped his hand on the desk with frustration. "You know what? I'm sick of this"  
"I'm Sorry?" Weir glared.  
"I mean sitting around waiting for them to show up! I say we take the fight to them"  
"We've got five ships Major." Caldwell said grimly. "They have five hundred"  
We have a ship fitted out with Nukes and Asgard technology, and some of the biggest warships anyone has ever seen. We all know what the guns on the Earth Force ships can do. That evens the odds a lot"  
"Thirty ships and escorts." Caldwell reminded him grimly.  
"I'm telling you we gotta send these guys a message." Shepherd spoke with a passion. "We're not like the Ancients, we'r enot going to sit around and wait.If theydon't back off, we have the capacity and the will to go kick their asses for a change"  
"Yeah, I'm with him." Ivanova raised her hand. "I've never been one to wait"  
"So how do we fight a ship in hyperspace?" Caldwell asked.  
"The Wraith drive system isn't as efficient as the one on the Daedalus." McKay set up a diagram on the main screen. "Not only are they slower, they have to travel in a series of jumps. SO if my calculations are correct they'll make one last stop here, fifty lightyears away before they make the final jump to Atlantis"  
Caldwell looked to the slender woman in charge of the city. "Doctor Weir"  
She nodded slowly. "It will feel good to have them on the defensive for a change"  
"Alright then." Shepherd grinned. "Let's do this."

"There is one small problem." Gideon called the room to order. "Our ships aren't going to be able to join you, our drive system is unique and we can't navigate without a locked system of beacons. Plus fifty lightyears in half a day is stretching us a little far"  
"We use a different type of Hyperspace travel." Ivanova clarified. "In some special circumstances we might be able to travel that fast, but a tenth of that is a more likely speed"  
"The power grid on my ship was pushed to the limits getting us all here." Caldwell added. "Without the ZPM we won't be able to drag you along"  
Galen stepped forward. "I think I can help. My ship can navigate hyperspace without beacons, and I can find some very favourable paths through the thicket." He smiled. "We will be there on time"  
"Also Galen discovered some facts about this city on the way in, he deciphered some of the texts on the walls." Captain Gideon remarked. "If all goes well he might be able to help here"  
"You deciphered Ancient text?" McKay exclaimed. "How"  
"By looking at them." Galen replied with pure innocence. "How else"  
Weir smiled. "Perhaps you could take a look at the data base a little later on"  
"Charmed." He bowed to the female scientist. "Much of the technology here predates similar systems back home"  
"You've seen other technology of a similar age?" Zelenka asked.  
"Yes, and met those who built it." Galen smiled. "They were not great conversationalists"  
McKay sat forward a little "So beneath that outfit you're an explorer or archaelogist, like Indiana Jones or one of those Nazi henchmen"  
"I'm what is known as a Technomage." Galen indulged the Canadian. "I use science and technology to simulate magic. For example you are now surrounded in a careful holographic illusion affecting your appearance, but to the room it looks like you are wearing women's underwear"  
Rodney scoffed. "Oh please, I'm too old to fall for that…." He stopped talking, based on the expressions of the rest of the room he guessed Galen was probably telling the truth. "Thank you, really, it's been a while since I was embarrassed like this, really"  
"A parlour trick, easily removed." Galen cancelled the spell. "But you understand that the potential of altering the appearance of a person or object. This is one of my lesser abilities, pray we never find ourselves in a position where I have to use my greater skills"  
"I have a question." Zelenka spoke. "Don't turn me into a naked man or anything, but why do you have these powers? What is the point"  
Galen cocked his head. "Well lets just say my order was not started as tricksters and persons of wisdom. These are paths we have chosen, because our true purpose took us to a very, very bad place"  
"I hate to rush everyone," Ivanova cut in, obviously not meaning it. "But enemy fleet"  
"We should go." Caldwell stood. "Can I have Hermiod beam you to your vessels"  
"Emphatically no." Ivanova replied. "I'll take all my molecules up in the same package they came down in thank you"  
"Oh by the way," Wier added. "Internal sensors picked up an alien lifesign in the city that arrived about when you did, would you mind taking it back with you"  
Gideon sighed. "Dureena"  
"How do you hide on a crew shuttle?" Ivanova shrugged. "They're hardly big enough to stand in"  
"She does have quite a talent." Galen mused. "If circumstances were different she'd make a good apprentice"  
The group broke up and headed for their commands, a team of Marines once again joining the Earth Force officers as guides and escorts.  
"We have to save this place Matthew." Galen said quietly. "It holds secrets that will help us all"  
"In the data base"  
"I suspect so." The mage answered. "I have a feeling about this place, the people who built it. They are not strangers to our world and others through the gate"  
"If they visited our Earth why isn't there any trace of them?" Gideon asked.  
"I really don't know, but I have a theory or two"  
"And that's what you expect to find in the database, the right answer"  
"No." Galen smiled. "The right question."

Deep space, later that day.  
Daedalus

Black turned to white, a shimmering cascade of transdimensional energy flickering like a blossom in a storm as its petals unfurled. From the extravagant display emerged something dark and blocky, a stark contrast to the artistic entrance it had been given. It would be hard to call the BC 304 class ships pretty, they were build for practicality above all else, something they shared with the ships of their kin in the Earth Alliance. They could not afford to put ornaments on these weapons of war, it didn't matter what the ship looked like just so long as the ships around it looked like spinning debris.  
"We've arrived exactly on location." Major Foster reported. "Estimate three minutes to Wraith arrival"  
"Maintain battlestations." Caldwell ordered. "Hermiod, any indication our allies are here"  
The Asgard engineer broke away from his work below decks to reply.  
"There are elevated tachyon levels in this area, it is subtle but might indicate scans from beyond the dimensional barrier. I have only had a brief time to analyse their method of travel. It seems unnecessarily reckless"  
"Well let's hope Galen was as good as his word, I don't want to take this fleet alone"  
"Colonel, on that point." Hermiod continued. "I may have a way to even the odds. It is possible for me to alter the settings on the transporter system my people installed so we can deploy nuclear weapons"  
Caldwell smiled. "I thought the Asgard didn't trust us with that capability"  
"They do not, but the capability will be mine, not yours." He said curtly. "However if you will insist on attacking the Wraith fleet with me on board, it is in my best interest to make sure we win"  
"Very well Hermiod, perhaps the Asgard and humanity aren't that different afterall"  
"I find that remark insulting." The engineer replied, perhaps a little amused in his own unique way. "I will ready the devices"  
"Make it quick, we're expecting company soon." Caldwell signed off.  
"Was that Hermiod trying to be helpful?" Foster grinned.  
"You know I think it was." Her commander replied with a chuckle. "In his own unhelpful way, I guess he was trying to make sure we all don't get killed"  
"That's sweet." Foster remarked. "Remind me to get him a thank you card when we make it home"  
The radio came on again. "Errr, sorry to interrupt sir." Novak said nervously. "But we have disturbances ahead, I'd say the Wraith are here."

With a similar but different coloured blaze of light the Wraith forces emerged from hyperspace. Ship after ship emerged in a wave, rolling forwards and breaking into different groups. The Hive ships were working together, setting aside their differences for this grand goal. They formed a wedge formation, hundreds of smaller escorts and thousands of darts massing around their flying cities, a huge sledgehammer and massive show of force.  
Against them the Daedalus stood alone, one ship against the stark black background. It was dwarfed by even one hive ship, the massive fleet filling the sensor screens was just something altogether unreal.  
"That's a lot of ships." Shepherd remarked from beside Caldwell.  
Caldwell resisted the urge to say 'Duh' and just nodded. "Status"  
"Shields fully operational, engines ready." Foster replied. "All stations report ready"  
"Main batteries ready, rail guns and interceptors armed, missiles and heavy rail cannons ready." Lieutenant Miguel informed. "Enemy are targeting us"  
"Hermiod"  
"It will take a few minutes to apply the changes to the Asgard systems." The engineer reported. "I recommend you find an alternate way to keep the Wraith occupied until then"  
"I'm sure we can think of something." Caldwell grinned. "Alright Major, all ahead flank and standby to fire at the closest hive ship."

The warships engines blazed into life, driving towards the hive ship at the front of the enemy force. Escorting cruisers broke away to intercept the Daedalus and dart fighters sung into position like mosquitoes. "Fighters on approach, entering range"  
"Fire rail guns." Caldwell commanded. "Hold course and speed"  
The yellow rounds began to fill the sky stitching the path in front of the incoming darts. Both sides were moving much faster than they had been at Atlantis and reaction times for the dart pilots could be measured in milliseconds. The solid slugs shredded the waves of fighters without difficulty, the first wave reduced to high speed wreckage by the point defences. The ship blazed past the carnage, a few pieces of metal bouncing off the shields with little effect.  
Caldwell watched in satisfaction as the range closed. "Secondary guns, clear us a path through those cruisers, main batteries standby to engage the Hive ship"  
The Earth cruiser rolled as the first return volleys raced past, narrowly missing the ships shields. The interceptor system activated and began knocking down the storm of heavy energy pulses from the Wraith cruisers, but of greater concern were the much heavier batteries on the Hive ship. They remained silent for now.  
"Locked on!" Miguel called. "Firing"  
The twin turrets either side of the Daedalus engaged with staggered pulse and laser fire. It was a popular Earth force tactic called 'Slash and burn' where the laser beams opened up an enemy hull and the pulse cannon rounds crashed through to cause heavy internal damage. It was a tactic created by Captain Sheridan during his time on the Agamemnon and was a favoured tactic for the modern EA ships with dual purpose guns. The Wraith cruisers answered in kind and began striking the shields where simple weight of fire began to bleed through the interceptor system, but the grid was at least stopping the majority of incoming fire and giving the shields some breathing room.  
"Hold speed, don't stay and tangle with the cruisers!" Caldwell said. "Go for the Hive ship, fire as you bear!"

Foster raised the bow of the Daedalus slightly to line up the fixed rail cannons, pointing them directly at the belly of the hive ship. "That's it, take the shot"  
Miguel fired the rail guns, the two heavy weapons shuddering the cruiser as they discharged. Again the twin rounds were flung outwards toward the enemy and almost instantly travelled the distance and smashed into the Wraith armour. A normal round would have passed clean through, but this salvo had been special.  
The rounds had been tipped with Naquadah, and impacting the Wraith ship managed to trigger a cataclysmic reaction in their atomic structure. The mineral destabilised and exploded with terrific force, blasting away one of the spherical habitation points under the hive ships belly and sending a steam of fire through the ship and out its upper hull in a bright fireball.  
The crew cheered, the Hive ship starting to turn away as secondary explosions wracked its hull, but despite the damage it was still in the fight. A score of massive blue energy bolts burst from the hive ship, three of them striking the Daedalus, and glowing brightly against the shields, shaking the vessel violently.  
"Shields holding!" Foster reported.  
"Get us closer!" Caldwell ordered. "Missile batteries ready for point blank fire"  
The ship drove on, dodging past an escort cruiser that was slowly crumpling as its insides melted away and its reactors melted through the hull. One of the hive ship blasts punched into an escort, immolating several hundred feet worth of hull and sending it spiralling out of control. The Earth cruiser lined up again and swept past the Hive ship a few hundred metres from the hull.  
"Snap shots, one and two!" Caldwell shouted.  
"Missiles away!" Miguel responded and hit the controls.  
From the upper deck a pair of enhanced nukes launched from their silos, travelling the short distance to the hive ship and burying themselves in the outer hull. The Daedalus broke away at full speed as several gigatons worth of explosive power detonated up against the Hive ship, covering it in blinding white light.  
"Report Major"  
"Sensors coming back," Foster said anxiously. "We got it! Enemy ship destroyed"  
"Nice work Miguel!" Caldwell congratulated. "Just twenty nine more to go."

The Wraith ships were converging on the Daedalus, they were wary of the ship but must have noticed it's shields fluctuating with the hits from their deceased sister. If they hit the ship often enough and hard enough they were bound to win. Like a pack of animals they gathered, sending the weakest in first to absorb the ships sting and weaken it enough for the Hive ships to finish off.  
"Enemy ships changing formation, this isn't going to be pretty." Foster winced.  
"Colonel Caldwell." The curt voice of Hermiod suddenly broke onto the bridge speakers. "The transporter is ready"  
"Hermiod, your timing is perfect." Caldwell sighed in relief. "Doctor Novak, ready a mark Eight bomb, five second delayed fuse"  
"Yes sir, it'll be ready in a second"  
Major Foster smiled. "They aren't going to know what hit them"  
"I just hope we have enough nukes." Shepherd remarked.  
"I think we'll manage." Foster confirmed. "Transporter active"  
In the distance a ball of energy emerged from one of the Hive ships, blasting it into fragments.  
"Oh yeah, that worked." Shepherd rubbed his hands together.  
"Hermiod, hit another one." Caldwell ordered. "Fast as you can"  
"I assure you I am not taking my time." The Asgard snorted.  
Moments later another Hive ship detonated. The formation began to split up as debris thrown from the destroyed vessels stabbed into its neighbours.  
"Wraith cruisers on their way." Miguel said. "Intercept course"  
"Keep our distance." Caldwell said. "No need to engage them when we can pick off their fleet at range"  
A third hive ship was reduced to scrap with no visible sign of attack, and then a forth. Blue pulses whizzed past grazing the shields or being caught by the interceptors. Just as everything seemed to be working perfectly, as was inevitable things went wrong.

"Colonel, the transporters are unable to gain a lock." Hermiod reported dispassionately.  
"What?" Caldwell grunted.  
"The Wraith have set up a jamming field, the transmissions are interfering with out transporters"  
Shepherd looked at Caldwell with surprise. "How did they figure that out"  
"Right now it doesn't matter." Caldwell was grimacing. "Fine, if we can't beam in nukes we'll just have to do it the long way. Spin up tubes three and four, standby to engage. Hermiod, try and break the jamming"  
"As you wish Colonel, but I am not hopeful"  
Major Foster angled the ships bow around and put it back on a direct course for the Wraith. The enemy was still in some confusion after the loss of some of their number and they were out of position. It would take them time to present a unified force again and with luck the Daedalus could keep them off balance and cause them a lot of problems.  
"Missiles ready." Miguel stated.  
"Launch!" The missiles popped gracefully from their silos, propelled by Earth Force magnetic launch rails. As soon as they were clear another Earth Alliance gift kicked in, highly efficient Ion propulsion drives gave the modified cruise missiles the boost they needed to travel quickly to their targets. Although they travelled much faster than normal SGC missiles the Wraith still had time to react to them, the Hive ship expending two darts to catch the missiles mid flight and destroy them.  
"Get another strike ready, four missiles." Caldwell snapped. "Prepare rail guns"  
"They've got more fighters than we've got missiles sir." Shepherd remarked. "We should get closer"  
"Any closer and they'll be hitting us from all sides, even with shields we'll be dead in minutes." Caldwell stated. "We need to keep our distance at least until reinforcements arrive."

Daedalus looped around one of the Wraith cruisers peppering it with small rail gun rounds and bursts from its laser cannons, carving up the cruiser without pausing. The shields fluctuated as the cruiser hit back but they held together. Darts streamed in from all sides, many falling to the defences but so great where their numbers that most were able to survive the experience. Each hit shaved a fraction off the shields, and slowly those fractions were mounting up.  
More missiles emerged from the upper launchers and disappeared in a cloud of ions towards the nearest Hive ship, which in turn responded with a wave of energy bolts. The missiles were quickly destroyed, but this time Caldwell had a second plan. While the Hive ship focused on the missiles he placed the ship in position to strike with rail cannons. Before the last missile was destroyed two more rounds were on their way to the target.  
But the Wraith learned fast, and the rounds were caught by an escorting cruiser which placed itself in front of the hive ship. The naquadah tipped rounds completely destroyed the Wraith warship, but left the much larger hive ship intact behind it. In response the Earth ship was targeted by any vessel in range and was forced to break off.  
"We didn't get through sir!" Miguel reported. "The Wraith ships are bunching together, cruisers putting themselves between us and the hive ships"  
"We haven't got enough weapons to punch through sir." Foster said. "And if we try and get close they'll mass their fire and break our shields"  
Caldwell grunted. "Any second now would be good for our back up"  
For once the fates decided he was right.

The point of energy flashed and twisted like a spike stabbing across dimensions, splitting normal space in a torrent of tachyons and hyperspace energy. From the blue maw an Earth Force destroyer appeared, weapons armed and half it's fighter wing already active and covering the ships approach. EAS Titans arrived a few hundred miles from the Daedalus and took up station, immediately the Wraith escorts began to act more cautiously.  
"Ivanova to Caldwell, respond please"  
The tension on the Daedalus bridge lessened with the arrival of help, but they still faced a major uphill struggle.  
"Captain, your timing is exceptional." Caldwell replied.  
"You know Captain the Marines on Atlantis said the Navy is always late." Shepherd grinned. "I just lost ten bucks to Captain Thorne"  
"Better late than burning debris." Ivanova replied. "we're going to try a missile barrage, then close the range and hit them hard. Real hard, you ready to escort us in"  
"Well yes, but aren't we missing something?" Caldwell responded. "Like the rest of the fleet"  
"They're almost ready." Ivanova said. "My ship uses an Earth force jump engine, its latest generation but it isn't perfect. We pick a place we want to jump from but the actual vortex could open ten miles away. The Excalibur and her escorts have a Minbari jump engine with Vorlon enhancements. What that means is basically they can open a jump point exactly where they want to arrive, within yards. I've just sent them location data for the Wraith fleet, thanks to your attack the hive ships and escorts are all bunched together in tightly packed task forces." They could here the evil smile in her voice. "Ever wondered what happens when a jump point opens inside an enemy fleet?"

They were going to get a chance to see first hand. With telemetry from Ivanova the rest of the ships could put their jump points in the middle of Wraith hive ships and their escorts. The same splitting energy lit up space, but this time the burst of gravitic and temporal energy was released in the middle of three closely packed formations of vessels. The Hive ships were at the epicentre and did not stand a chance, their mass was shifted into the alternate dimension, pushed out of reality by the unique nature of hyperspace while other sections of the hull were simply ripped to pieces. The surrounding escorts were caught in the backlash and were likewise torn apart.  
The arriving ships were preceded by violent bursts of energy, clearing away any surviving cruisers from the path the allied vessels exited on. The Whitestars immediately broke away and swept into position beside the Excalibur as fighters launched from their racks, mainly Thunderbolts but also a squadron of older SA 23-G Starfuries armed with anti fighter missiles and from the Whitestars six Minbari Nial heavy interceptors.  
The newly arrived warships were chewing into the Wraith left flank while the Deadalus and Titans faced them head on..

"Well, we didn't get lost in hyperspace and disappear like a ghost ship." Galen smiled. "As some people who shall remain nameless suggested"  
"I just happen to think that there is a reason for the beacon network, and that it happens to be a damn good reason." Captain Gideon shrugged. "I suppose I should never have doubted you"  
"Oh you can doubt me as much as you like." Galen replied. "Just don't be bitter when I gloat and bring up how wrong you were every time we meet"  
"Captain," Matheson interrupted. "We've locked on to the next batch of enemy ships"  
"Thankyou Lieutenant, weapons ready main gun"  
From the corner of the bridge the very out of place looking frame of Dureena folded her arms across her chest. "Do you think it's smart to leave us unpowered in the middle of a hostile fleet"  
"Not really." Gideon answered. "But the Wraith ships are bunched together, I can take out a score of them in one shot if we fire right now. We'll just have to rely on our escorts to keep us safe." "Main cannon ready." His XO reported.  
"Order fighters to attack, then commence firing sequence"  
Outside the wings of fighters broke away and cleared the firing arc of the big ship. The three Thunderbolt squadrons were armed with anti ship missiles and were tasked with hitting the Wraith directly. The Minbari fighters and regular furies would follow them in and keep the Wraith darts from interfering. At the other side of the battlefield the other two ships were preparing their fighter compliments to do the same thing.  
The green and yellow tendrils crackled from the engine housings of the ship and merged in front of the bow, with a final push from the forward housings the beam blasted across space towards a cluster of Wraith vessels. It slammed through a dozen cruisers and a Hive ship, leaving them either completely destroyed or so heavily damaged as to be unsalvageable.  
The Excalibur began the process of recharging it's capacitors and reopening the circuit breakers throughout the ship. To fire the weapon required a threshold charge, something to initiate the reaction and start the cascade and unfortunately that required a brief overload burst from the ships main reactor. Such a massive power surge then needed a minute to cool the reactor down, trying to start it early had been described as 'a bad idea' by Mr Garibaldi, and as the constructor he was acknowledged as been right. Especially when Galen had examined the power distribution systems with the look of an engineer inspecting a tower held up by string and cardboard. He had carefully avoided the words 'death trap' and made some comment about needing better reactors, then adding that the Technomages weren't the people to ask.

Daedalus

"Excalibur has fired, scratch another Hive ship." Foster remarked with pleasure. "But she's dead in space for one minute, Wraith ships are going to pounce on her as soon as they recover"  
"Then it's our job to keep them occupied." Caldwell said. "Deploy fighters and press on, coordinate with Captain Ivanova and let's deal with this problem once and for all"  
F-302 interceptors launched in rapid succession from the warship laden with missiles and ammunition. They took position ahead of the Thunderbolt fighters from the Earth Force ship and prepared to engage the Wraith fighter groups. The SGC fighters thanks to their alien technology had the advantage of greater acceleration that the Furies, they would range ahead and open a path for the larger craft to fly through and engage the Wraith capital ships with nuclear missiles. It wasn't going to be easy, especially with the numbers involved, but each pilot accepted this responsibility without hesitation and grimly prepared for the task at hand.  
The Wraith darts flew forward in a great mass with no formation or tactic other than swamping their enemies. The Earth fighters accelerated to meet them, lining up in loose pairs and allowing the Wraith to compound their error. The enemy fighters were advancing in such large numbers they weren't going to be able to take evasive action without colliding with their neighbours.  
Lock on signals chimed and the first wave of 302's launched their missiles. The streaked forward and took the Wraith head on, every one of them claiming a kill. Some of the 302's had been refitted with Starfury style pulse cannons, these now opened fire along with the traditionally armed high calibre guns in the unchanged fighters.  
Explosions marked the front of the Wraith wings as fighter after fighter was destroyed. Their weak armour was utterly ineffective against the fighters old style guns, let alone missiles and pulse cannons. The four squadrons of Thunderbolts joined the carnage, the ridiculously large guns mounted under their noses carving through flights of enemy fighters in one volley. The two sides clashed and raced past each other, any surviving darts meeting the point defences of the parent warships as they tried to shoot the backs of the allied fighters.

Titans

"All systems ready Captain." Commander Morton reported.  
"Time to make an impression then." Ivanova dropped into her chair. "Target the ships heading for Excalibur, full barrage, open fire"  
The warship turned its bow slightly and then prepared a missile salvo, the armoured doors to the silos popping open with a silent rush of white gas. The vessel carried two types of missiles, fifty five metre long anti ship missiles with a high megaton yield penetrator warhead and eighty metre cluster missiles for area saturation, each packing several dozen smaller nuclear warheads. The smaller missiles were designed for speed, aiming to race past the point defences, spear an enemy ship and then explode internally. The larger ones were more for eradicating wings of fighters and corvettes or for wide scale planetary bombardment, a legacy of the Clark era.  
The ripple fire sequence began. There was going to be zero chance of resupply out here and Ivanova had been saving the missiles for an appropriate moment, this certainly seemed to qualify. One after another the silver darts were pushed out of their housings with a burst of magnetic energy, and once clear their ion engines ignited with a blue flash, powering the weapons towards the Wraith fleet advancing on the Excalibur.  
The Wraith responded quickly, scattering pulse cannon blasts into the path and sending darts to intercept the missiles the rather more direct way. Closer to the target the strategic missiles broke up in a shower of sub munitions that scattered in a cone amidst the swarms of darts before detonating in a blaze of hundreds of bright spheres. The Wraith fighter forces and a few cruisers ceased to exist and space was cleared for the anti ship missiles to make their final approach. Half the missiles were shot down, but the other half managed to strike their targets crippling a Hive ship and destroying four cruisers. More importantly it took some pressure off the Excalibur.

"Enemy vessels turning toward, they noticed that." Morton smiled despite himself. "Hive ship targeted"  
"Bow guns, open fire"  
The great ship shook as the Particle guns fired in unison, slicing into one of the massive Wraith flagships. The ships armour tore and melted, internal explosions blew out vast chunks of the hull and the ship began to lose control. The beams continued, moving as the Titans altered course slightly and widening the holes in the Hive Ships hull. Finally the guns managed to slice all the way through the vessel, cutting it into two halves.  
"Outstanding Mr Singh." Ivanova grinned. "If we live through this I'll buy the gun crews a drink for that one"  
"Yes Ma'am. Thank you Ma'am." The officer replied.  
Ivanova took a brief look at sensors and saw the other Earth Force ship was by now coming back online. "Alright helm, All ahead full, take us into the thick of the enemy fleet. Guns, engage anything that's stupid enough to get in our way"  
Six ion engines growled into life and began to push the massive warship forward, gradually building up momentum and through brute force hurling the destroyer towards the Wraith fleet. Beside it the Daedalus also began moving faster, keeping time with the grey giant and shooting at anything that strayed into range. A small force of Wraith cruisers took the bait and set an intercept course, firing with long range weapons against the allies. Interceptors responded, though a few rounds got through striking either armour or shield.  
The return fire was heavier, at close range the Daedalus missiles became effective weapons and the nuclear tipped warheads were powerful ship killers. Likewise the massed batteries of guns on the Titans bludgeoned the Wraith ships out of the sky as both vessels pressed on closer to the main force.

Excalibur

"Main power restored Captain." Matheson reported.  
"Let's get back into the fun then." Captain Gideon took on the challenge. "Ahead full, close the range hit them with all we have"  
"We're still rather outnumbered." Galen pointed out. "Tell me, have you ever heard of General Custer"  
Gideon shot him a glance. "If Custer had our kind of firepower I'm sure things would have gone a little different. Forward guns, fire"  
Green energy beams cut into the Wraith ships, separating their hulls on a sun atomic level with a bombardment of Neutrons breaking up the molecular bonds of the metal holding the ship together. The cruisers had nothing that could stop such an attack and fell apart in a couple of seconds. Never the less they continued swarming into battle, firing a thick carpet of energy pulses the Excalibur had no choice but to fly into. The rapid fire interceptors performed well, but the thunk of weapons hitting the hull began to grow more frequent.  
A pair of cruisers tried to drop in behind the Excalibur, unleashing a volley of rapid fire pulses. They were engaged by a squadron of fast moving fighters dodging past the storm of fire. Two of the Thunderbolts went down, but the rest managed to get close enough for a full missile strike, launching over eighty nuclear missiles into the sides of the two cruisers. The weapons were not large, but in such numbers they overwhelmed the enemy and left both ships gutted.  
While the heavy ships picked off targets at will the two Whitestars broke away and weaved between the enemy ships, cutting into cruisers and Hive ships alike with their forward weapons. The two attack ships kept close to the enemy hulls, forcing the escorts to fire at their own ships in order to try and hit them, which the Wraith seemed quite eager to do. Pulses bounced on the shields, and while the adaptive system was optimised for Wraith weapons the damage was still accumulating.  
They broke away, leaving a cruiser nothing but junk and lined up on a Hive ship, a storm of pulses filling the space between the two groups. The Whitestar guns answered, weapons designed to take on Shadow cruisers now found themselves employed against the less sophisticated Wraith vessel, carving through its hull without resistance. Unfortunately the pure size of the enemy vessel was keeping the Minbari Hybrids from doing critical damage instantly, and they were forced to press the attack, dodging as much fire as they could and trusting in their shields to take the rest.  
A sudden massive volley hit the leading Whitestar, overwhelming its shields and shredding it's starboard engine assembly. The vessel spun out of control shedding molten debris as its comrade pulled up and tried to get a lock with it's tractor beam. It was of course far too late. The damaged ship ploughed into the front of the Hive ship, crumpling its bow and twisting it into an abstract contortion of its prior appearance. Jets of fire burned through the front of the ship as the attacker exploded gouging out vast swathes of corridors and facilities.  
The surviving Whitestar looped over the Hive ship and performed a sharp back flip keeping its bow weapons on target for the duration of the run. Between the withering volley and the simple brutality of the impact the Wraith Hive ship just gave up and lost control, its reactors mirroring the demise of the smaller allied ship. The bright flash marking the end of both vessels in spectacular fashion.

Daedalus

Foster grimaced as the sensors fed up data from Hermiod's console in engineering. "Colonel, we just lost our lead Whitestar"  
"Damn." Caldwell snapped. "Ranger Leader Gilmore wasn't it"  
"Yes sir, we're also starting to lose fighters. Enemy forces and concentrating on our ships individually"  
To emphasize the point the ships shook violently four times in quick succession. Miguel fired another batch of rail gun rounds and missiles but despite destroying a large number of Wraith ships things were not looking good. The damage was if anything increasing.  
"Shields forty percent, interceptors are losing efficiency." The slightly panicked voice of Novak warned from engineering. "Colonel we're starting to see fluctuations in the power grid, I can't keep recharging the shields much longer"  
Outside he could see the Titans duelling a hive ship, the two behemoths were broadside on exchanging fire at point blank range. The Earth force ship seemed to be winning but was taking a lot of damage in the process, its hull scarred and ruptured by the concentrated fire. Elsewhere sensors showed the Excalibur doing much the same thing, using its agility to try and avoid the escorts and go straight for the Hive ships. Unfortunately there were so many escorts it just wasn't working and that ship too was taking more and more damage.  
"This isn't going to work." Caldwell said quietly. "Major, get me a channel to the other ship"  
Foster turned some controls. "You're on"  
"Caldwell to fleet, we're not getting through, we can't stop the Hive fleet"  
"Doesn't matter!" Ivanova shouted, the entire bridge was filled with echoing impacts from the Wraith ships she was fighting. "We can still thin out the numbers"  
"It won't make a difference Captain, we can't save Atlantis this way. We must withdraw"  
"There's still more than half the Hive ships left!" Gideon answered this time. "Even with its shield it can't hold until more reinforcements arrive"  
"If the ISA even has reinforcements!" Ivanova yelled over the din. "All our ships were hunting Drakh when we left"  
"And staying until we are killed won't make a difference either, this battle is over." Caldwell said finally. "We must withdraw, regroup at Atlantis. We still have half a day to prepare, we might find something we can use"  
"And we might not." Gideon said.  
"It's a slim chance, but it's better than no chance because that's what we have here!" Caldwell stated. "We must withdraw, try again at Atlantis"  
The Hive ship engaging Ivanova exploded, more than a third of its hull having being blown apart before then. The Warlock was showered by debris, its hull had barely been patched up since the fight with the Drakh and now it seemed the destroyer would be wanting yet another complete overhaul.  
"Fine." Ivanova said. "But even with Galen I don't think we'll be back in time, it'll just be you there when they arrive"  
"If Atlantis holds we can take them in the back." Gideon snarled. "Hit them while they're bombing the city"  
"It's the only option we have." Caldwell sighed. "Recall fighters, standby to retreat to Atlantis."

The F-302's broke off from their dogfights and swept around, evading the thick clusters of debris from cruisers destroyed or crippled by strikes from the Titans Thunderbolt fighters. The Daedalus kept them covered with as much rail gun and interceptor fire as it could, but one fighter was still lost to a Wraith dart before the defences could stop them. The Thunderbolts were luckier, able to accelerate away and then spin around to fire on their pursuers as the continued to leave the battlefield.  
Captain Gideon wasn't pleased about running out on this battle, but the odds were by now completely in the Wraiths favour.  
"Lets make a big exit, op up the jump point on top of that Hive ship. Let them know we're not finished even if we are running"  
The Excalibur turned hard about, it's turrets taking out one more cruiser before it began accelerating towards a hive ship.  
"Jump engines active." Matheson reported. "Ready to jump"  
Gideon nodded. "Do it"  
The light flickered just in front of the Hive ship before opening into an orange shaded gateway, shredding the Wraith vessel unlucky enough to inhabit the same area of space. The damaged surviving Whitestar retreated through it and held position on the far side waiting for Galen's guidance, waves of Thunderbolts escaping the same way. The great warship itself raced for the portal, putting as much power as it could into the engines, but not quite enough.  
From behind the wreck of a Hive ship one Wraith cruiser came from seemingly no where, it charged at full speed for the Excalibur ignoring it's defences. Neutron weapons tore through its hull and destroyed the ship as an effective fighting unit in seconds, but they couldn't stop several million tons of broken metal spinning wildly on an intercept course.  
"Evasive action!" Gideon shouted. "Brace for impact"  
Much of the wreckage missed, but a solid core of it based around the engine blocks struck the Excalibur on it's stern, bending and shattering the back of the ship. The vessel lurched out of control, power systems shorting out as fuses blew and emergency systems cut in to keep the crew alive. Gideon was pressed back in his chair and anyone not strapped down was thrown to the floor including Matheson. Only Galen seemed unaffected no doubt thanks to some magery.  
"Jump engines off line!" the helm officer shouted as she steadied the ship. "The vortex is collapsing"  
"Dammit!" Gideon yelled. "Time until we can open another one"  
"I dunno, the engines have taken heavy damage!" The helm officer worked frantically. "I can't get them back online"  
Galen cleared his throat. "You're not going to like this, but a Hive ship just entered range and is firing on us"  
To prove the point the ship jolted as the first rounds hit.  
"Aft interceptors are down, rear weapons also unpowered." Matheson coughed. "So either we turn and fight, and risk getting surrounded, or we run and get shot to hell." Gideon was grimacing, as far as choices go it wasn't much.  
"Captain, message from Captain Ivanova, sir she's holding open her jump point for us"  
Gideon veritable leapt from his chair. "Helm, can we make it"  
"Yes sir, but with that Hive ship on our back I can't guarantee we'll be in one piece"  
The Captain turned back and walked up beside the Technomage, shrouded in blackness and gloom on his bridge.  
"If there is anything you can do, any trick or little piece of technology you can use to get us home safely, now would be the time"  
"Captain, you don't know what you are asking of me." Galen replied equally quiet. "It is a path I did not wish to turn down again"  
"I am asking you to save the lives of every body on this ship, including your own. I'm asking you to preserve Atlantis and it's knowledge. I am asking you to give us a chance to go forward and find a cure for the Drakh plague. I am not asking for the world, I am asking for a lot more and I know you can deliver"  
"And the cost?" Galen said. "You must understand there is always a price to pay"  
"Are you saying you won't do this because of what it might cost you"  
"More along the lines of what it might cost you. After this I will not be the same person you know. Are you sure you want this"  
Gideon did not blink. "More certain than anything else in my life"  
The Mage nodded. "Then so shall it be."

The armour on the stern of the Excalibur was flaking away, it was able to refract a great deal of the incoming fire but the Hive ship was mounting such a vicious assault and with no interceptors to help the Earth ship was bearing the full brunt of the attack. "Launching countermeasures!" Matheson called. Out side a shower of crystal pieces made from the same material as the hull clouded behind the destroyer, the Wraith shots that struck it dispersing in a rainbow of colour. The commander of the Wraith vessel kept up the assault however, accelerating to drive through the countermeasures and finish the wounded ship.  
"That bought us a few seconds." Gideon gestured to the sensor screen. "Do whatever it is you're going to do"  
Galen sighed and closed his eyes, linking to the sensor grid in his tiny black pinnace stored in the Excalibur hangar deck. He could see the Hive ship, see the Excalibur, see the Titans trying to keep the Wraith back with broadsides and failing. He could feel the crew on the enemy vessel, sensing their life force through the fundamentals of his vessels sensor net, he could almost taste the deep hunger driving them onward. The ship turned virtually transparent, letting him examine it's internal workings, from reactors to weapons cores to central life support. He noted places of structural integrity and focused on one massive nest of load bearing structures in the centre of the ship, the vessels equivalent of a keel.  
Abstractly he felt the attack begin again as the Hive ship passed the obstructions and lined up on the Excalibur once more, blasting a huge slab of metal from the upper drive fin. It spun slowly away exposing the ship's propulsion system to direct attack, something the Wraith were eager to pounce on. Galen could delay no longer, he was hesitating and trying to avoid doing what he knew he must. Focusing on the structural supports deep in the Hive ship he began to project the equations and calculations that created his spell.  
A dark bubble formed at the Heart of the enemy vessel, a small sphere that turned from deep red to a shade of pure jet black. It was innocuous looking enough until it began to expand, swelling to encompass more and more of the room it was in, flowing around the structural supports and deck plates. It began to grow faster, expanding beyond the room and growing through the decks, finally drawing notice from the crew and spreading panic.  
"Galen." Beside him his friend was frowning. "Are you going something"  
The mage did not answer, but Matheson did. "Captain, something's wrong with the Wraith ship, I'm ready a lot of energy fluctuations and stresses throughout its hull"  
"Get me a picture Lieutenant, on screen"  
The Wraith ship had stopped accelerating and its weapons began to cease firing. Dart fighters streamed out of the ship as anyone who could gain access to a small craft fought tooth and claw to break out and flee whatever devilry was affected the tribe's mother ship. As Gideon watched the top of the Hive ship buckled and distorted, morphing as something pushed out of the hull. It looked like the top of a black Sphere.  
"Sensors can't tell what that is sir." Matheson reported. "They can't penetrate it"  
"It's Galen." The Captain shot a look at the completely absorbed mage stood on the bridge. "How close are we to the jump point"  
"Few more seconds, Titans is holding position"  
The Sphere that had consumed the central section of the Hive Ship stopped growing. I held there glimmering for a few moments, then incredible rapidly collapsed in on itself vanishing away to nothing in a heartbeat and leaving the hollowed out Wraith vessel behind as the only sign of its existence. As it disappeared Galen collapsed to floor gasping, sweat running down his bald head.  
"Dr Chambers!" Gideon yelled into his link as he darted forward and slid to the floor beside his friend. "Emergency on the bridge, I need you up here now"  
Galen grabbed the Captains arm. "Did it work"  
"Lieutenant"  
Matheson nodded. "Wraith ship is dead in space, and it looks like it's lost a third of its mass"  
Gideon shook his head. "What was that? what did you do"  
"I bought us time, at the cost of a great many lives. Use it wisely." The mage said quietly. "I need to return to my ship"  
"Doctor Chambers is on her way"  
"No!" Galen snapped, his face instantly changing from anger to regret. "No Captain, there is nothing the good Doctor can do, I need to rest on my ship. It will help me recover, nothing else can"  
With a sigh Gideon agreed. "Fine, I'll have them wheel you to your ship, but if you die in there I warned you"  
Galen managed a weak smile. "Yes sir."

The ruined Hive ship was expelling air at an incredible rate, its central void clouding with gas and debris, along with numerous Wraith crew. Fuel lines spayed reactant materials into space while power lines crackled with energy around their severed nodes, it was only a matter of time before something explosive happened.  
Fire flashed in the hollow space, a shorted power line triggering one of the reactor feeds and sending a burst of destruction back down the fuel line. The ship exploded slowly from the inside out, its hull folding and bending without its strong central supports and the compartmentalization proving useless as everything around the sealed rooms fell apart and twisted under the force of secondary explosions. After a few seconds it like so many others was nothing but debris.  
"We still have ships closing." Matheson looked at the sensor reports. "Those cruisers can move when they want to"  
"But they won't stop us before we reach hyperspace." Gideon pointed out, still trying to decide exactly what Galen had done. "Problem is if they go straight to Atlantis they'll arrive before we do"  
"It'll be up to the Daedalus to face them alone." His executive officer winced. "Not good odds"  
"I hope they know what they are doing." Gideon said firmly. "I really hope they do"  
The Excalibur streaked past the Titans and disappeared into Hyperspace, pulling away into the vortex and leaving the battlefield. Ivanova's ship fired one final volley, smashing a last Wraith cruiser trying to follow the Excalibur into the parallel dimension, then it too pushed its engines up to full power and vanished, the gateway closing behind it.  
Behind them the fleet left a clutter of wrecked ships, friend and foe. It rated as one of the worst losses in Wraith history, whole tribes lost to the black of space in the space of a few minutes. But despite the cost they had won a victory and now had a clear run to their greatest prize, the city of Atlantis and the promise of a hunting ground that would sustain their people for generations.  
The surviving ships paused briefly to retrieve their fighters and any stragglers that sought to join a new tribe, then entered hyperspace again and proceeded towards Atlantis without a second thought for their dead comrades.


	17. Chapter 7 The Siege Concluded

Starship Daedalus.

With a billow of twisting energy the Daedalus cruised out of hyperspace and lined up on Atlantis, a gleaming point of light in the ocean. The ship was showing a few signs of the battle though luckily its shields had absorbed most of the damage. It's gun barrels were blackened with use and missile silos empty and now open to space, two of the spaces in the hangar bay set aside for the ships airwing also remained silent and unoccupied.  
"Location confirmed." Major Foster spoke with relief. "Atlantis."  
"Don't get too comfortable Major." Caldwell Cautioned and set up the communications panel by his chair. "We still have all hell snapping at our heels."  
He was right, the scratched together fleet had torn up the Wraith forces heading for Atlantis but they had been stronger than expected and the allies simply hadn't done enough damage. About half the Wraith strength had been destroyed but it had cost one of the valuable Whitestar attack ships and caused heavy damage to the remaining ships. The Titans and Excalibur had taken a beating, and while both could still move and fight the ISA flagship had lost the ability to fire its primary cannon and Ivanova's ship was out of missiles and running short on fighters. The surviving Whitestar was in a similar condition, and while all three ships could still give the Wraith fleet a bloody nose ultimately they would all be destroyed without turning back the hive fleet. They had pulled a further ace out of the deck in the form of Galen, from what Caldwell could tell he had personally destroyed a Hive ship but the effort of creating such a massive effect had left him on the edge of a coma and he had returned to his ship which was now guiding the fleet home.  
And that was the other problem, without the ZPM Daedalus could not extend it's own Hyperspace drive fields to incorporate the large Earth Force ships and so they were heading back through Hyperspace using the Technomages sensor grid to navigate safely. Unfortunately even with his First One level technology they were still hours or days away from home, while the Wraith would show up in just minutes. It was all going to be over before they got back unless somebody thought of something fast.  
"Open a channel." Caldwell said. "Time to share the bad news."

The temperature in the Atlantis control room seemed to drop as Caldwell made his report. Weir could swear she felt the air turn to ice and sensed the hairs on her neck standing on edge.  
"Bottom line is it didn't work." Caldwells voice boomed.  
"Well at least you gave them something to think about." Weir did all she could to stop her voice from wavering. It was devastating news, her hopes had been built up and knocked down so often these last few days she was beginning to feel like a burnt out emotionless shell.  
"We'll see." Caldwell returned. "But I don't think we'll be able to use the beaming tactic again, and even if we had the whole fleet it isn't enough raw firepower to stop them, plus we've all taken damage."  
"It was the right thing to do." Shepherds voice added. "They're not far behind us, but we should make it home first, we'll be entering orbit in a few minutes."  
"I hope it was." Weir said heavily. "We'll keep the Porch light on for you." She nodded and then ended the communication. "Okay, what are our options?"  
She glanced at Doctors McKay, Zelenka and Beckett  
"Well let me see," McKay fielded the question and looked up at the roof for a moment. "We've got slow death, quick death, painful death, cold, lonely death…"  
With a hint of a sigh Weir turned and headed up for her office, refusing to entertain Rodney's sarcastic pessimism.  
"Okay, you said yourself that the shield should buy us at least some time?"  
"No more than a day." McKay answered. "But I guess I'll think of something, kind of what you pay me for."  
"Thank you Doctor." Weir smiled briefly before looking to a technician. "Clear Daedalus to land on the east pier as soon as it arrives, maybe they have some ideas of their own."

A few minutes later the unlovely but surprisingly graceful starship twisted over the city and carefully landed on one of the petal like piers of the city. Before its engines had fully shut down the shield was back up and running, a pearly sheen in the sky above barely noticeable to the naked eye. A small garrison of soldiers from the SGC and Earth Force met the command staff as they disembarked and made their way to the meeting with Doctor Weir in the command centre.  
"Welcome back to Atlantis Colonel."  
Caldwell nodded curtly without breaking pace. "The Wraith are right behind us."  
"I wasn't really expecting you to land." Weir mentioned. "The arrangements were more of a formality."  
"Until repairs are complete the Daedalus is going to need Atlantis' shields as much as you do."  
A voice suddenly crackled over the communication system. "Doctor Weir, Wraith ships are exiting Hyperspace."  
High above the battlegroup began to concentrate above the near defenceless city. No shining shoals of drones reached up to the Wraith, no Heavy particle beams or pulse cannons burned the air to smite the Hive ships, no fighters or warships sought to create a barrier of steel and plasma before them. The city lay silent, unmoving, poised and apprehensive in the face of the inevitable attack. It was how the Wraith loved their enemies to feel before battle, it was like fine seasoning to their food and it enticed their senses. Very deliberately so the entire city could savour the dread in the moment, they formed up and began to fire.

"The shield is holding." McKay reported from his station. "But it is under incredible strain."  
"How long will it hold?" requested Weir.  
"Well if they stop firing it'll last almost indefinitely but…"  
"More than a day?"  
McKay sighed. "There are more ships than we expected. At this rate the ZPM will be depleted in just over twenty six hours."  
Beyond the control room the bombardment continued, bright flashes of light scattering over the shield and flinging brief shadows across the spires of the city with each brief impact. The small populace gazed quietly at the scene alone with their thoughts, for many it was the first time they had seen such a sight, for some among the Earth Force personnel it was an unpleasant reminder of their days huddled far below ground as Minbari warships levelled their surface bases.  
Whatever the specifics they all shared the same truth, they were trapped.

"The Daedalus will be back in fighting form within the next twenty hours." Caldwell announced. The staff had gathered in the conference room to try and formulate some sort of plan. "The rest of the fleet will arrive about the same time, but if we fight them it'll end in the same result."  
"Even if we were able to destroy these ships more would come a few days later." Weir grimaced. "And even more a few days after that. From where I'm standing I just don't see how we can win this."  
"Well now we know how the Ancients felt." McKay remarked curtly. "Even with the resources of the ISA we just can't get enough ships here fast enough. Plus they have that whole Plague and interstellar war with agents of darkness on their to do list."  
"Atlantis is the only way to Earth." The slightly wilted voice of Doctor Zelenka stated. "As long as they know it is here they will keep coming."  
From the other end of the table Shepherd repeated the sentiment. "As long as they know we're here."  
Weir looked his way. "What do you mean?"  
"Zelenka just said as long as they know we're here they'll keep coming."  
"yes." Rodney cut in. "he did just say that."  
"Well what if they thought we were gone?" Shepherd turned the edges of his mouth up in a smile.  
Beside him Teyla smiled enigmatically. "Then there would be no reason for them to stay."  
"Exactly!" Shepherd beamed at her.  
"Exactly what?" McKay added in excasberation.  
Shepherd reacted like it was the most normal thing in the world. "We disappear."  
Colonel Caldwell was frowning and trying to follow the course of the conversation. "We destroy the city?"  
"No," Shepherd shook his head emphatically. "We just make it look like we did."  
"How?" Weir asked.  
"We cloak it!" McKay said triumphantly, rather like it had been his idea all along.  
"Yes yes!" Zelenka joined in, having to restrain himself from jumping on the desk. "The Puddle Jumpers have cloaks impervious to Wraith scans! If we simply remove one of the generators…"  
"I wouldn't say 'simply'" Interrupted McKay. "But yes, by interface a jumpers cloak into the shield we should be able to render the city invisible."

"Well that's all well and good." Caldwell raised his voice. "But if the city just disappears they might just put one and one together."  
"Which is why we need to fake a self destruct." McKay spoke fast. "Have the Daedalus drop a nuke right over the city shield and then detonate it. While their sensors are blinded we cloak the city, and when the smoke clears…"  
"…Nothing but Ocean." Weir finished.  
"what about Radiation?" Caldwell pointed out.  
"Oh I should be able to work out how long to wait until we switch over to the cloak." McKay dismissed.  
"But what about the displacement issue?" Zelenka waved in.  
"It's coporambulation." McKay took it as in his stride. "That's the easy part."  
"Okay, what about the hard part?" Zelenka continued.  
"Hard part?" Shepherd this time raised his voice.  
"Well the cloak will replace the shield." McKay explained. "So once the cloak is activated we'll be completely unprotected."  
"We'll be completely exposed?" Weir came crunching down on the inevitable flaw in the otherwise perfect plan.  
"well… yes."  
"So if they are not fooled by this ruse…" Caldwell began.  
"Then they destroy the city." Shepherd finished. "Which is exactly what we were gonna do anyway."  
"What about Daedalus?" Weir looked to Caldwell.  
"With our shields recharged we can break through their lines and escape, and we know we can out run them."  
"Alright, lets get as many people off city as possible in case it doesn't work." Shepherd suggested. "The fleet can pick them up from the new Alpha site and take them home."  
"Hopefully Hermiod can find a way to stretch our power to get the ISA ships back too." Caldwell commented.  
"How much time do you need?" Weir asked the two scientists.  
"Oh, well…" McKay blinked as he thought.  
"A week." Zelenka announced.  
"A few hours." McKay countered.  
"I'll take the second estimate." Weir confirmed. "Go."

A few hours later the scene was set, with Zelenka and McKay crouched around a cloak embedded in a jumper with a cacophony of wires and crystals scattered around the device linking it to the city. Above them the Daeadalus waited, having slipped out during a short lull in the barrage. Teyla was preparing to use her connection to the Wraith to further aid the deception by planting false information. The city waited, with no other options everything hung on this plan.  
"The message is delivered." Teyla announced with a knowing smile. At almost the same moment the intense barrage stopped.  
In the control room Weir fought to remain calm. "Seems like they heard Teyla loud and clear. Rodney?"  
"Yeah, I think I'm ready." The Canadian huffed.  
"You think?" Weir emphasised with a hint of annoyance.  
"I am definitely ready." He confirmed with more strength in his voice, willing himself to believe it.  
Weir leaned in and activated her communication system. There was no turning back now. "Daedalus, launch the weapon. All personnel prepare for detonation flash."

"Ready Major?" Caldwell asked.  
"Yes sir." Foster replied. "At least I can't think of anything else to do as crazy as this."  
"Well look at it this way," Caldwell remarked. "If it works we deny the city to the Wraith, if it fails we deny the city to the Wraith. There's just a crap load more paperwork the second way, so lets hope this goes to plan." He switched on station to station comms. "Doctor Novak, go."  
Deep in the hull of the ship Hermiod activated the transporter system and put the last nuclear warhead the ship had into the air above the city.  
"The Weapon is away." Novak confirmed.  
A second later her words were confirmed by a titanic blast that tore up the atmosphere and blanked out the view to the city.  
Beneath them McKay waited tensely until the blast subsided enough to take down the shield without burning them all to a crisp.  
"Standby sublight on my mark." Caldwell ordered.  
"Standing by sir." Foster echoed.

"Rodney?" Weir repeated with a little duress.  
"Okay, we're cloaked!"  
Above the mushroom cloud still boiled over from the explosion, a vast tortured shape of black and red.  
Weir looked around, seeing everything exactly as it was earlier. "How can you tell?"  
"They're scanning for us." McKay had dropped his voice to a whisper and sent the occaisional furtive glance around. "I don't think they've detected us."  
"Why are you whispering?"  
"I dunno." McKay frowned, catching himself. "Just seemed like the thing to do."  
"Is it working or not?" Weir asked in a raised voice.  
"Atlantis," the gruff voice of Colonel Caldwell filled the room. "This is Daeadalus, our sensors show the Wraith fleet is breaking orbit."  
"I can confirm that! They're heading for Hyperspace!" McKay tried with limited success to curb his enthusiasm. "I'll keep the cloak up a little longer just to be sure, but I think they bought it."  
"So it's over?" Shepherd asked.  
"For now." Weir nodded. "For now

Atlantis, later that day.

Galen stepped quietly into the darkened room, the air was slightly colder in here as a result of the high ceiling and cavernous space. In an artificially controlled city like this one all the rooms should be the same temperature, apparently the Ancients appreciated instilling a sense of awe in their work. He breathed in deeply and exhaled a slight mist, following its progress as it rose and dissipated. With the city safe for the time being he had taken his leave and come to investigate this room which held the access to the Ancient data base, a holographic projection system which could display anything he sought to ask of the city computer.  
The ISA fleet had arrived several hours after the Wraith left and was settled into orbit conducting what repairs they could to make them space worthy again in lieu of a true dock. The Daedalus was likewise repairing its engines and with Hermiods disgruntled help Colonel Caldwell was confident he could bring one ship back with him on the next supply mission, presumably the more Valuable Excalibur with the Titans and the Whitestar waiting for the second and third trips. It at least gave Ivanova and her crew some time to relax and some of the Earth Force Marines planetside had asked for a chance to travel through the Stargate on an offworld mission.  
As soon as they arrived galen had quietly made his way to the Excalibur bridge, taking a moments joy in surprising the crew with his sudden presence. While very weakened by practicing the spell of destruction on such a scale he showed little of the fatigue, and with his physical self refreshed by spending time within the sanctum of his ship he could once more walk among people. Though he wouldn't be doing much casting for a while.  
He had been rather excited about visiting this place and took his ship down as soon as was practical, announcing his intentions to the staff and being given permission to look around the City on his own. If he needed help they would do what they can between damage limitation.

"Ah." The quick spoken tone of Rodney McKay entered the room. "I see you found it, took us a while to pin point this place."  
"It helps if you can read the ancient language." Galen answered. "This city is surprisingly well sign posted."  
"Well I suppose if you are fluent in six million forms of communication everything is readable." McKay huffed.  
Galen smiled and extended his hand palm up, with a flash a data crystal appeared on it. "This is all I have on their language. I doubt it is complete, and the grammar may be incorrect, but it should help you translate any documents you may find written by the Ancients."  
McKay eagerly grabbed the crystal. "You are kidding me? We've had our top men working on this for years! You do it overnight!"  
"Well, I can't take all the credit. That should go to my ship, it has a rather impressive computer that did all the hard work." Galen did not elaborate on the fact that it was Shadow technology, an artificially created organic computer core more like a living brain than a machine. "Consider it a gift, a sharing of information."  
"Speaking of, I'm sure you're interested in checking this place out."  
"More than you can imagine." Galen smiled cheerily. "I assume it draws a great deal of power?"  
"Yeah, you could say that." McKay glanced at the room. "Pity really, I could spend weeks in here just looking at stuff. But after your help I'm sure Doctor Weir would allocate you some time here."  
"I wouldn't be long." The Mage lowered his hood. "Glad you could join us Matthew, Captain Ivanova, oh, and Major Shepherd."

Gideon was not surprised Galen judged their entry into the room so precisely, but the other two members of the group exchanged a quick glance. Ivanova knew of technomages and figured that Galen had some type of in built sensor system, Shepherd just felt a little creeped out.  
"Well here we are." Gideon took the lead. "Can I ask why you wanted us here when you switched this place on?"  
"Well it promises to be quite a show for one thing." Galen grinned. "And I suspect we may find a great many valuable things in the database, especially in the medical section. I can send on what we find to Doctor Chambers, and then on to Earth."  
"But you also wanted us here." Shepherd gestured at McKay.  
"I thought after spending time here you might be interested in finding one or two secrets." McKay guffawed rather enthusiastically. "Well you know, we have only been trying to figure it out for the last year or so. We might find it just a little interesting."  
"Rodney, dial down on the coffee next time." Shepherd commented. "I've arranged for about an hours worth of time from one of the Naquadah reactors, is that enough?"  
"Oh don't worry about that." Galen waved and bent down, opening a panel on the floor. "This is where a ZPM would go?"  
"Well yes, if we could spare one." McKay said. "But the room is also wired up to the main power grid."  
Galen took his staff and with a whisper placed it into the ZPM receiver. With a slight crackle the room powered up and sprung into bright illumination. "There, that should do it. My staff is receiving power directly from my ship, should give us all we need."  
"What, since when?" McKay demanded. "How much power?"  
"Enough for my needs." Galen replied. "Which is as much or as little as the situation demands. A Wizard never has too much of anything, or too little."  
"Sure thing Gandalf, but if that thing can power our shields I'll be testy you didn't mention it earlier." McKay grumbled, then looked up at the holographic projections. A few simple spheres floated overhead as Galen sat in the chair.  
"Don't you need Gene therapy or something to work that?" Gideon asked.  
"Oh that shouldn't be a problem." Replied the cheery technomage. "Now, let's start with medical shall we? How about nano virus records?"

The lights danced and coalesced high above the chair, it was an extraordinary display with none of the projection lines or wavyness that Earth Alliance or even Minbari holograms suffered from. Alien text and symbols ran through the air swiftly passing from one wall to another as if they were spectres creeping through the walls of an abandoned church.  
"You do need the Ancient genes to work this though, right?" Captain Gideon asked quietly.  
"Yes, yes you do." McKay answered. "It was sort of a defence mechanism to prevent Ancient technology being used by others. Now luckily there are certain humans where the line of descent is strong enough that they have a similar genetic make up to the Ancients themselves."  
"Alright." Gideon nodded slowly, assimilating the information. "So why can Galen do it?"  
"He must have the ancient gene, which means somewhere in the past his ancestors were the same Ancients who built this place." McKay explained. "Probably that gate too."  
"Speaking of." Galen raised his voice. "There is a mention of it here."  
"What, really?" Ivanova stepped closer. "What does it say?"  
"A great experiment, only partially successful." Galen recited. "It was supposed to be an instrument of time travel, but instead it opened into a parallel world. Hmm, apparently they had a better method of visiting parallel universes, some sort of mirror, so they didn't build anymore."  
"Yeah, I saw that once at Area 51." McKay smiled fondly. "But they wouldn't let me touch it, the big men in black suits manhandled me away."  
The lights moved and danced until they stabilised into the form of a familiar spiral galaxy, some stars glowed blue, green and red with legends attached.  
"Is that the Milky Way?" Gideon asked.  
"Yes." Both McKay and Galen replied together.  
"That would be Earth." Ivanova pointed to the blue world.  
"So what are the other two?" Shepherd asked. "Goa'uld worlds?"  
"On the contrary." Galen examined the image in pure wonder, it was a mystery building before his eyes. "That is Z'Ha'Dum, homeworld of the Shadows."

"Holy…" Ivanova gasped. "That's our galaxy?"  
"How?" Gideon added. "Did these Ancients explore our galaxy? Why haven't we ever heard of this before?"  
"I don't know." Galen replied. "But this green world is deep in unexplored space, behind sector 912."  
"Vorlon space." Ivanova said quietly. "We still haven't been able to pass the borders, they still have automated systems guarding their space."  
"But it looks like the Ancients mapped it out." McKay remarked. "Well that's gotta be pretty good."  
"Based on the locations, this is the galaxy as it appeared about a million years ago, maybe five million years ago." Galen remarked. "At the height of the First Ones power. Look here, the orange world, Sigma 957. I assume these other marked planets are other major systems relating to the ancients."  
"IPX would murder for this map." Gideon said.  
"And that's a fact." Ivanova agreed. "Earth Force Black Ops works through them, with respect Captain I think we should disclose this map only to President Sheridan."  
Gideon nodded, he'd seen enough of the seedy side of the Alliance to have some healthy caution. "Agreed. Galen, can you store this somewhere?"  
"I shall keep it on my ship, it will be safe there."  
"This is potentially huge." Ivanova mentioned. "Anything with information on the First Ones is eagerly sought after by all the governments back home. And by Eager I mean clawing desperation."  
"We need to keep the extent of the database absolutely secret, the ISA controls the gate in name but we can't gurantee a rogue group won't try and hold the SGC to ransom with warships to get this information." Gideon warned.  
"Nice friends you got out there." Shepherd grimaced. "Guess self interest is just the same everywhere."  
"You're not wrong." Galen nodded. "Now, Nano virus…"

Infirmiry

Captain Thorne sat on the edge of the admittedly comfy bed and sighed while Doctor Beckett frowned and mumbled as he went over her test results. She had endured a fairly close encounter with a Wraith and taking a nasty couple of hits in the process, but as far as she was considered she was fit and ready for duty. She'd suffered much worse in the past. Much worse.  
"Doctor, I do have duties to attend to." She repeated for the fifth time.  
"I am sure you do Captain." The Scotsman replied. "But until I'm sure you are healthy you'll have to stay here, at least for a few more minutes."  
She huffed and went back to examining the rather plain room, there were two other occupants including a Lieutenant Ford who had also been attacked by a Wraith and was being checked out. Casualties among the defenders had been fairly light, the battle had been ended before a real assault could take place and the few landing parties had been rapidly dealt with once the orbiting ships were destroyed. With Atlantis now apparently safe there was talk of heading back home and Thorne for one was eager to get home. Killing Wraith was fine, but all things being equal she'd rather be slaughtering Drakh.

"So," Carson began. "I understand you're telepathic."  
Thorne brought her attention back to the present. "Yes doctor."  
"So you could read my mind?"  
"If I wanted to yes, but there are rules and laws that prevent unauthorised scans."  
The man shook his head and chuckled. "This has to be an amazing breakthrough in medical science, the idea that Parapsychology was correct and ESP is a natural phenomenom."  
"It isn't." Thorne said. "At least not in humans, it's the result of an advanced alien race genetically tampering with us."  
"Really? Why?"  
"To make us obedient little foot soldiers in their wars, happily a fate we avoided." Thorne answered. "But it's raised a lot of questions. We know what we were made for, we know our purpose in the universe, we just don't have it anymore. Gets confusing sometimes but not for me."  
"You have a purpose?"  
She nodded. "Came with the uniform."

The doors swished open allowing a pair of American Marines in dressed in their distinctive digital pattern uniforms. They made their way over to a medical bed and started up a conversation with it's occupant, Captain Thorne instantly recognizing one of the new soldiers.  
"Doctor, who is that Sergeant? Have you seen him here before?"  
Beckett looked over at the man. "No, he looks like he came through the gate with your team."  
"There was something odd about him, he took a Wraith in hand to hand."  
"He can't have done, Wraith are too strong for normal humans."  
"Which is my point dear doctor, I know what I saw and I think you should try some tests on him. He might not be as friendly as he seems."  
The Sergeant laughed with the man in the bed, then left him talking to the other soldier and stepped up to see Doctor Beckett still stood beside the Earth Force Captain.  
"Doc, can you tell me if Private Harris is in good shape? He looks okay."  
"Sure, Sergeant…?"  
"Peters." He answered. "Marine Corps."  
"Well Sergeant your man Harris should be up and fighting again in a couple of days, he took a shrapnel wound to the leg but its healing just fine. You can thank our Earth Force friends for the quick recovery time, they have a way of stimulating accelerated tissue repair."  
"I'll do that." Peters nodded to Thorne.  
"Excuse me, I better check on Lieutenant Fords blood test." Carson said and scurried away leaving Peters and Thorne alone.  
"So I should say I'm glad you guys shared your medical tech." Peters offered. "And those gunships, they're pretty cool."  
"There's no easy way to say this." Thorne stated. "What the hell are you?"  
"Staff Sergeant William Peters, United States Marine Corps."  
"Don't feed me that, you're hiding something." Thorne snapped. "No human can stop a Wraith without some heavy weapons on their side."  
"I guess that makes me special, Ma'am."  
"I am in my rights to scan you." Thorne warned. "You could be a direct threat to this city and this mission."

The conversation was interrupted by a laugh from the distance. They turned to see Ford get up out of bed. "That's crazy." He announced.  
"Will you please sit down.." Carson said. "I need to run a lot more tests."  
"I am not a Wraith!" he exclaimed.  
"No, no you aren't but you do have some enzymes in your blood that need investigating."  
"I've never felt better doc!" Ford grinned. "I'm fine!"  
"You're in a hypermetabolic state, your body is running on a chemical high." Carson warned. "If you do not rest you'll burn out, go into a coma and die. Now lay down, I need to administer a sedative."  
"You're not going to stick a needle in me." Ford lowered his voice threateningly.  
"Lieutenant, in my sick bay I do what I need to do to save lives. Now sit down and take a rest."  
Ford slapped the syringe out of Carson's hand and pushed him back. "I know, why don't you take a rest instead? I've got work to do."  
"Lieutenant, using my authority as chief medical…"  
Ford grabbed the Doctor and threw him to one side, the Scot crashing down hard amid a shelf of glass jars. Two Marines moved fast to restrain Ford but the young officer quickly knocked them down and threw them out of his way with remarkable strength.  
Thorne stood up with a focused expression. "Another super strong man." She glanced at Peters. "At least we know this one is hostile."  
"What are you going to do?"  
"I'm gonna mind-frag the son of a bitch, what do you think?"  
"Wait, let me try it." Peters said. "We don't have to kill him."  
"Look whoever you are, best way to stop a threat is to stop it dead." The Captain answered.  
"He's one of us, he needs help not an execution. I can handle this, and if he kills me then you can toast his brain."  
Peters moved quickly towards Ford who was making for the door.  
"Men, always gotta do it the hard way." Thorne sighed in resignation.

"Lieutenant, sir." Peters blocked his path. "You're going to have to stop."  
"Out of my way!" Ford reached out but found his hand caught in a solid grip by the Sergeant.  
"Right now sir, or she's going to melt your brain out through your ears." He gestured at Thorne who was staring intensely at the scene.  
"I knew this was a lie! Alternate planet Earth? That's a pile of crap!" Ford pulled away. "You want Atlantis! You'll kill us all to get it!"  
He threw a punch at Peters, who rapidly tilted his head so the fist passed by touching just thin air. The Sergeant moved fast, stepping back and avoiding a follow up kick by the increasingly psychotic officer.  
"Captain Thorne," Peters called as he sidestepped another strike. "As ranking officer, permission to restrain Lieutenant Ford."  
"Go ahead." She remained sat on the bed with her arms folded. "Have fun, beat up a junior officer."  
Despite the situation Peters wanted to do this by the book, something ingrained in his sense of responsibility objected to just outright punching an officer. Now though, with permission from a senior commander, he was free to take action.  
He blocked a punch from Ford and twisted the officers arm around, putting a jab of his own into Fords side with a sharp push of speed. The man buckled under the strong attack but did not give way, kicking back and forcing Peters to give some distance. Ford countered with a quick combination attack of punches and kicks, all of which Peters avoided or blocked. Ford was using his standard hand to hand training, techniques Peters would be very familiar with as a fellow Marine, but with far greater strength and speed than usual.  
"Don't make me hurt you Sergeant!" Ford half yelled, losing control of his faculties. "Can't you see what's happening? Am I the only one who's going to do something?"

With an inward sigh Peters accepted negotiation wasn't going to work, neither was fighting defensively. If he couldn't bring Ford down he'd get himself killed, either by Captain Thorne or gunned down by his own men. That was no way to go for any officer.  
Peters lashed out without warning, the speedy jab from his right fist slamming hard into Ford's jaw. With a slight yelp of surprise he backed up left himself open to three more sledgehammer like impacts from the unusually fast and strong NCO. It didn't last, and as Peters made a second drive aimed at pushing Ford against a wall the officer made his move.  
He ducked under the swing and threw an uppercut at Peters catching him by surprise. Ford had no idea how he was able to move this quickly, a little part of his brain put it down to adrenalin but mostly he didn't care. In fact he was beginning to really enjoy it. He grabbed the Sergeant and hauled him off his feet, throwing him down hard on the ground with a thud that shook the table beside Thorne several feet away. He drove his fist down but Peters rolled quickly away and Ford crunched his knuckles into the cold floor instead.  
Then it was Ford's turn to be on the receiving end. Peters snapped a scissor kick from the floor launching the officer a couple of feet through the air and dropping him awkwardly to the ground. Ford scrambled quickly to his feet but Peters was already up with surprising dexterity and pressing his advantage, curving a booted heel into Fords chest and sending him back into a bed with a wince of pain. The Lieutenant felt cold steel at his fingers and whipped around a silvery round plate scattering the glass vials that had been on it across the floor. He raised it like a shield and intercepted a punch from Peters, the steel plate actually bending in the middle as the blow landed. The impact must have hurt the Sergeant as he let up for a moment, long enough for Ford to throw the plate at him and find some open space to fight from.

"Sergeant?" Thorne prompted.  
"No Captain, not yet." Peters gathered himself and circled towards Ford. "Just a little more time."  
"You aren't going to stop me." Ford grinned "No way, just no way."  
Peters didn't say another word, instead he just lashed out with a left hook. Ford responded before realising it was a feint, and the real danger was a jab coming from the right. He turned his head away but not fast enough to totally avoid the attack and felt the strike ringing inside his skull. His face was already reddening as blood vessels protested the attack and he was going to have some nasty bruising, but in his mind he didn't care. Sergeant Peters had proven himself an enemy and the immense and ever growing rage within ordered him to destroy the threat, to kill his fellow Marine.  
The Lieutenant swept his legs around in a risky attack aimed at Peters knees, striking one and causing the Sergeants leg to buckle. Using the opportunity Ford struck the off balance man three times quickly to further disorientate him before rushing around behind the beleaguered Sergeant with uncommon speed and then lock his arm around Peters throat from behind. Then he started tightening the hold on Peter's neck.  
"You should have just got out of my way!" Ford hissed. "You won't take Atlantis, not you, not the Wraith, nobody!"  
Captain Thorne had moved from her bed and now stood before the Lieutenant, looking suddenly very serious. Her cold blue eyes focused completely on the out of control officer.  
"Lieutenant, I am directly ordering you to let Sergeant Peters go."  
Ford scoffed. "Like hell, you're not one of us, you're as bad as he is!"  
"Last chance." Thorne warned. "I don't want to do this, but I will kill you if you do not surrender."  
Ford ignored her and kept tightening his arm around the Sergeant's throat. Thorne sighed slightly and began to gather her thoughts for what the Psi Corps had cheerfully called 'Mind Ripping' a very dangerous and difficult skill to master.  
"No!" Peters croaked. "Wait!"  
With all his strength he pushed at Fords arm, the Lieutenants enhanced strength held firm for a long moment, but then began to give way. Peters opened up enough space to take a deep breath as Ford snarled and tried to force his arm back around the Sergeants throat. His limbs were shaking with the exertion, but Peters managed to let go with his right arm and jab his elbow back with all the force he could muster into Ford's chest. The Lieutenant shuddered like a bolt of electricity had gone through his body and loosened his grip enough to give Peters space to move. He elbowed the Lieteneant a second time, now able to put more strength to it, and then followed with a third and a fourth driving the air from Ford's lungs.  
Finally the winded Lieutenant loosened his grip enough fro Peters to act. He kept hold of Ford's right arm and dropped his shoulder, pulling Ford up and throwing him over his back and dropping the officer hard to the floor in dazed confusion. He kept hold of the arm and pulled it taught before placing his boot on Ford's own neck and applying pressure. All he had to do was pull that arm and apply a little more pressure with his foot, and Ford would be a dead man.

"Sergeant." Thorne's voice was like a whisper heard dimly through the blood pumping furiously through his ears. "Sergeant Peters." She tried again. "William?"  
It had been a long time since anyone had bothered using his first name, at least when it wasn't shortened to Bill. His eyes blinked and he looked up at the raven haired officer like he was waking from a deep sleep.  
"It's done Sergeant." She continued in a perfectly measured voice. "Let me put some cuffs on him, just keep him steady."  
Peters did just that, allowing Thorne to put three separate sets of hand cuffs on the dazed Lieutenant before Peters finally hauled him to his feet, the hot convictions of the fight cooling and wearing off, giving way to clearer senses. While he lifted Ford onto a bed Captain Thorne checked up on the unconscious Doctor and Marines before signalling for help.  
"They're going to be fine." The Captain remarked.  
"Did the Doctor say something about Wraith enzymes in the Lieutenant's blood?" Peters asked.  
"Yes, right before he decided to go wacko." Thorne said with a shrug. "His thoughts were extremely disrupted during the fight, he wasn't in control of himself and had a lot of very primal anger and hate going on there. Let's hope he hasn't inherited some of the Wraith's more vampiric traits."  
She reached to the floor and picked up the dented metal plate that Peters had punched into its current state. "So anyway," she began. "I was going to ask you exactly what you are because you clearly aren't a normal human."  
"It's a long story."  
"Well give me the quick version, the Marines will be here for him and Doctor Beckett is coming around. What are you?"  
Seeing no other option Peters told her the truth, and it wasn't what Thorne had been expecting.


	18. Chapter 8 A Diplomatic Incident part 1

I'd like to thank all of you guys who have taken the time to review the story, some of you have even had some good ideas that has made us reconsider a few things so again my thanks as well as that of the Chronicles team of Tyr and Lord of Misrule. This chapter is an introduction of another writter to the team, even though he's only done this chapter we consider him part of the team, some of you may know his work on "Derelict" another great story we all recommend. So my thanks to him for writting this outstanding chapter. Enjoy everyone.

On another note I apologize for the crude breaks between sections, I don't know what Fanfiction uses but its extremly fustrating! I've tried everything I know to smooth over the breaks in section but it keeps reseting it. So agian I apologize and hope you guys can follow along without too much difficulty.

A Diplomatic Incident. Part I

Jack O'Neill was engrossed in the mountain of paperwork sitting on his desk.

This was not by choice.

A decorated Special Forces operative who had spent twenty years in an unbroken string of 'Black' operations from Iran to East Germany, paperwork had never bee of major concern to Jack. That was simply the way Black Operations worked; the fewer records kept the less the chances of a foreign intelligence service (or God forbid Congress) finding out about things they really didn't want to know about.

The irony for Jack O'Neill was that with flag rank came more paperwork per month then he had touched in the last ten years combined. Stargate Command might still be blacker then deep space, but it was a frontline command in the US military, meaning inevitability, it had been sucked into the black hole of Pentagon bureaucracy. Picking up the last pile of papers from his 'in' tray, Jack started to sort through them, looking for the easiest item to start off with.

The monthly SGC budget? Pass!

Colonel Dixons P4X-664 mission report? He put that in the 'maybe' pile. He had spent a horrifying thirty minutes with Balinsky being lectured on completely worthless ruins dating from the first Goa'uld dynasty.

He doubted the report had anything significant to add on that topic.

Requisitions request by the armory on behalf of SG3 for a dozen Javelin ATGM launchers? Shrugging, Jack stamped an approval. High explosives made the jarheads happy and he had first call from SOCOM on any equipment orders.

Post dated authorization for the EA contingent to expand their command and control centre on sub level twenty two? A signature here and initial there and that problem was solved.

Final specifications and schematics for the flight II Daedalus class ships…Jack flipped through the executive summery, nodding in approval at the projected yields of the experimental weapons systems then tossed it to the side so he could flip through it over lunch. Big honking space guns went down well with roast beef.

Complaint from NSA about the SGC steeling the CIA's satellite time?

He decided he wasn't really in any mood for bureaucratic infighting between intelligence agencies.

And every other folder was personnel reports.

Lots and lots and lots of personnel reports.

Sighing once again, Jack picked up the budget folder, but was interrupted by a glorious, wondrous noise.

His phone was ringing.

All thoughts of accounting fled from his mind, his free hand grabbed for the half buried phone on his desk, sending folders sliding everywhere.

"O'Neill"

"Sir I have General Hammond on the line for you from the NMCC".

"Put him through" O'Neill ordered, sitting up straight in his chair and tossing the budget file across the desk. A series of clicks echoed through the line as the digital scrambler reconfigured and then a familiar voice broke through.

"Jack?"

"General!" O'Neill responded happily. Though if it was because of his CO's voice or the fact that he had a distraction from the paperwork, he couldn't tell…and didn't really care, he was happy either way. Pushing all thoughts of paperwork out of his mind, he leaned back in his absurdly expensive leather chair.

Flag rank did have some privileges after all.

"What can I do for you Sir?"

"Jack I need you to go on an off world mission" Hammond started without preamble. "Well actually, it's more of an off universe mission, if you get my drift".

Jack didn't.

"Yes…but you can fill me in on the details?"

"The President", Hammond continued, "has authorized negotiations with the Interstellar Alliance and the Earth Alliance to move up to the State level. Our allies of course want to be involved every step of the way, so we will be sending a delegation out to Babylon Five tomorrow with you in overall command".

Jack paled slightly at the prospects for diplomatic catastrophe starting to materialize in his mind.

"Uh…Sir with all due respect-"

"Relax Jack, no-one is asking you to conduct the negotiations" Hammond snickered slightly, if in good humor, visualizing his subordinate's look of stark terror quite accurately in his mind. "Richard Woosley will be the IOC and our lead representative. You'll just be along to advise him on any military issues that might come up".

"Military issues?" Jack asked…then belatedly added 'Sir?'

"You'll be having a few meetings with some Earthforce military personnel" Hammond clarified "Joint training exercises, strategic situation reviews in both Universes, conference on a few of the more military technology transfers and so on that sort of thing. Nothing too fancy, you'll mostly be on hand to offer Mister Woosley any advice he might require".

"Well…that seams pretty straight forward" Jack allowed, refusing to believe for a second the mission would be that simple. Close to nine years at Stargate Command had taught him a valuable lesson in life.

Nothing was ever that simple.

"You'll depart on the Prometheus from Groom Lake at zero five hundred tomorrow morning; all her resources will be at your disposal for the duration of the mission". Hammond paused for a second to gather his thoughts.

"Jack, this could very well be the biggest breakthrough for Earth since the protected planets treaty. The President asked for you specifically for this mission-"

Oh thanks, no pressure at all Jack thought to himself-

"-but it should be a straight up diplomatic meet and greet. President Sheriden hammered out most of the agreements with Earth months back on behalf of the Interstellar Alliance; the IOC got everything put together last week".

"It took that long?" Jack wondered, surely it wasn't THAT hard to get a delegation together.

Hammond chuckled slightly.

"That's the price of international co-operation Jack. But the problems were not so much on our end. President Sheridan promised us a great deal of technology for our help, though what he offered was mostly Earth Alliance technology which he technically didn't have any right to offer. Now the Alliance didn't care given what we've done for them and what we're doing for them. But politicians are the same in any reality, when you get right down to it".

Jack thought about it for a few seconds. Put that way it DID sound relatively simple…but on the other hand-

I'll be taking Carter and Daniel with me. They've been moping around the base too long anyway".

"I thought you might" Hammond replied and Jack could hear the smile in his voice. "Give them my best. Godspeed Jack, Hammond out".

A click and the line disconnected. Stabbing his finger at the phones cradle, he got a dial tone back and pressed a button. Two rings it was picked up.

"Operations".

"Walter? Get a hold of Carter and Daniel and send them down to my office will you? Oh and General Franklin as well". Walter acknowledged and O'Neill hung up the phone before turning back to his pile of paperwork. He might be going off world tomorrow after all, but if didn't get this pile cleared today, he knew there would be hell to pay.

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Without warning and without announcement, the massive silver structure of the inter-universal gateway activated. The duty officer of the EAS Vesta froze for a few seconds at the majestic and terrifying site, before snapping himself out of his stupor as he hit the 'all hands' switch on his link.

"Attention all decks, the gateway is activating. All command officers; to your duty stations. Communications; get Sol Fleet Command online and tell them we have company coming. Weapons; bring the defense platforms to standby and get our own systems ready. Fighter command; stand by to launch".

The bridge crew sprang into action at his rapid fire orders, voices overlapping as they communicated with distant officers, some as far away as Earth orbit, to prepare for the incoming contacts. Orbiting the gateway, a quartet of "G.O.D" heavy defense platforms fired their thrusters, re-orienting to bring their weapons to bear on what was probably going to be a friendly ship…but might not be.

Earth had learned the hard way from the Minbari (and now the Drakh) about being prepared in their home system.

"Massive energy spike, still increasing…hell it's going off the scale" the sensor officer called out as the computer admitted defeat and stopped trying to recalibrate the waveform on his screen in real time.

Seconds later, the quartet of white lights on the oval shaped structure flared to blinding levels before spreading out into a blue surface of quantum partials, through which a ship materialized.

"Sensor profile matches the Prometheus" the sensor officer sang out as her displays cleared, letting her lock onto the new silhouette and deciding that it did match the X303's…and not a Goa'uld mothership.

"IFF also confirms" the communications officer added as the transponder on the small Battle Cruiser was interrogated by the Vesta's communications system. "They are requesting clearance to proceed-"

"Captain on the Deck" a new voice interrupted from the back of the bridge, causing the duty officer to swing around as Captain Edward MacDugan entered his command centre, pleased to note none of his crew abandoned their tasks to jump up and salute him despite many of them being relatively new officers on their first cruise, his command style was already rubbing off of the greenhorns.

"Ed, what have we got?" he asked as he stepped around the railing and moved to his command chair.

"Prometheus has just transitioned through the Gateway. IFF is nominal and they are requesting permission to depart the vicinity".

"Very well, signal the Prometheus they are clear to proceed to the Epsilon system, then signal system stand down. And tell the IPX team they can get back to work" MacDugan ordered as the near frantic activity of the last twenty seconds slowly fell away.

A team from IPX thanks to the translations Doctor Jackson had provided and some basic technical information supplied by the SGC was starting to make headway in analyzing the technology of the universal Gate, less to determine how it worked (that would take years if not decades even with technical help from the SGC) but more how it fit with the known Timeline the SGC had mapped out for the Ancients.

There were too many unanswered questions, especially with the evidence of the Ancients messing with evolution on a galactic scale in the alternate universe and Earth Gov wanted answers to the millions of year's old dilemma now,.

And damn the fact that the Gate was a level of technology only the First Ones could match.

That ISN still hadn't caught onto the story of a lifetime was still something of a shock, though it was understandable given that the Media on Earth was still a little distracted by the biogenetic plague that had been unleashed. They had hounded Earth Force about the origins of the Daedalus for a few days until the constant 'No Comment' responses had convinced them it had to be some kind of secret prototype rushed into the battle when things were to dire.

Earth Force as a whole was perfectly happy to let them keep thinking that.

The Vesta was here as much to make sure no intruders came through from the other side as to ensure an ISN shuttle didn't try to fly through the rift, land in the one of the alternate Earths major cities and start interviewing people.

Looking at the Prometheus, he couldn't help but think the Battle Cruiser looked so small to his eyes for such a designation…but he knew its size was deceptive. By the accounts of what her sister ship had done to a Shadow planet killer, he knew full well this 'small ship' could be expected to kick around a Warlock class Destroyer for a warm up before beating up on Minbari War cruisers if she got really mad.

Watching as the ship gracefully rolled away then punched through a dark purple rift into their own version of Hyperspace, he couldn't help but shiver slightly at the thought of the technology on that ship, a shiver he had felt only once before in his carrier.

Several days before the final battle in the civil war Clark, had played his last ace in the hole. The Vesta and two dozen other Omegas had jumped with weapons hot into what they had expected to be an all out combat zone Commander Ivoniva had jumped into a short time before, with no word since. The lack of contact as the minuites dragged by had finally driven Captain James of the Agamemnon to put together a heavy battle group to investigate Ivoniva's flotilla's status...and finish the fight if she had fallen.

Instead, the formation of slate grey warships had slowly moved into a massive graveyard. Here and there the wreckage of Whitestars burned slowly as leaking oxygen fueled fires, but the vast majority of the debris was made up of shattered Omega class spaceframes, a field of debris covered in the shimmering texture of Shadow Bio-Armor Technology.

The Battle Group had picked up four dozen Minbari and a handful of human rangers in life pods, which was a horrifying outcome given over three hundred had crewed the small fleet of Warships…but of the over eight thousand officers and men on board the loyalist ships, none had even attempted to leave their commands.

It hadn't mattered that they had been the elite guard, fanatical supporters of the Clark regime, nor that they had been ordered (and perfectly willing) to blast every Earthforce ship that had defected to Sheridan's side into non-associated molecules. Eight thousand of Earth Force's finest had died thanks to the son of a bitch in that battle alone. The taskforce had lingered for several hours combing through the wreckage in hope of a miracle, then returned to the fleet, bringing a grim determination to end the war before other such sacrifices in the name of a madman were made.

Bringing his thoughts back to the present, Mackie could only thank God that Clark in his rampant quest for advanced technology hadn't stumbled upon the Gateway. The thought of what he could have done with an unholy marriage of Shadow technology and the advanced alien technology Stargate Command used…

Forcing himself to push those thoughts out of his mind, he stood from his command chair and with a last look at the Gateway, turned towards the bridge access corridor. The Galaxy had learned its lesson well; the ISA had placed a flat ban on R&D of any kind of Shadow technology. An agreement both Earth and the rest of the member races had signed.

Humanity had learned its lesson. And he just hoped no race would be stupid enough to open THAT Pandora's Box again.

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In deep space, where no Hyperspace beacon led, where no Jump Gate existed and where no chart recorded anything at all of note; a void sat.

To an observer close to the edge of the 'void' it would simply appear to be a black sphere though which distant stars no longer shined. If one trained the more advanced sensors used by most races in this Galaxy upon it, they would find an enigma, all kinds of energy were simply sucked into the void, keeping its secrets hidden from anything but a point blank visual contact with the field.

The Shadows, Vorlons, Ancients or Asgard may have been able to see through the barrier…but given that the first three had moved 'beyond the rim' and the last had not the slightest interest in this universe, the field was sufficient.

Of course a ship on the outside could attempt passage through the field to try and unlock its secrets…

…but without an invitation, it is unlikely they would survive the experience.

Thousands of starships from tiny attack ships to gigantic Motherships circled in lazy orbits around a planetoid whose surface glistened with a black on black shimmer that would bring back bad memories for far too many races in this Galaxy.

This location so carefully hidden from prying eyes was a primary staging point for the Drakh fleet, one of their former master's ingenious technological achievements giving them a safe harbor from which to rebuild, mass their fleets and wait. While only a portion of the entire Drakh fleet, the striking power of the raiders, cruisers, attack ships and Motherships gathered here was terrifyingly beautiful to behold in its own right.

Deep inside the planetoid, a group of Drakh stood around a holographic projector. Galactic maps, diagrams and intelligence reports scrolled almost at random in front of the half dozen beings that silently plotted their moves with the patience, skill and care of any chess player.

Though their stakes were far higher then any mere game.

The darkness of the room only served to exaggerate their indistinct blurry forms as they silently communicated with each other over, studying the opportunity that was presented before them.

With their Centuari puppet feeding them the supplies and material they needed to rebuild the heavy losses they suffered in the attack on Earth, the Drakh really had little to do but wait patiently in the dark for the chaotic nature of the universe to take its course.

However, they were not above helping it along when they were needed.

The humans on Earth had, to their delight, gone into complete panic for weeks once the true nature of their attack had become public knowledge. It had taken Earthdome much effort to bring the planet back to a relative state of calm, one which doomsday groups (including several infiltrated by their own keeper controlled pawns) were doing their best to disrupt. A weakened and pre-occupied Earth Alliance was a good thing for them, for as the humans went, so did the Interstellar Alliance.

A stone building could not stand without mortar after all and the humans had proven to be that force which held the other races together. A surprise to their former masters, but a lesson their servants had learned well.

One element in their plans however remained outside either their control or manipulation and like a rock thrown into a pond; the ripples from its effects had begun to touch on their own subtle manipulations of the universe.

Their network of keeper controlled agents on Earth (this branch inside Earthdome which they didn't expect to last not much longer, EA Counter Intelligence was getting rather good at rooting out their agents) had informed them that the strange humans from this alternate reality were going to Babylon Five to negotiate a formal treaty of alliance and co-operation between themselves, the Earth Alliance and the Interstellar Alliance. They clearly had access to technology that could radically shift the balance of power, if their ship that had withstood withering salvos of Shadow built weapons in the Planet Killer was any indication.

And if their reports were to be believed; an entire city of First One's technology was in their possession.

Unacceptable.

The blurry almost indistinct forms of the Drakh standing around the table reached a consensus without saying a word audibly, all bowing to one of their number who while looking little different to a humans eyes, was none the less treated with reverence and awe by the rest of his fellows, before they stepped away into the darkness and vanished from sight.

The remaining Drakh extended his hand almost imperiously. Obediently, the holograph image wavered then collapsed before almost appearing to 'flow' onto his palm.

The Drakh regarded the slowly rotating image of Babylon Five for a few seconds, reflecting on how much this one insignificant and primitive station had cost their race…this so called bastion of light from which the Humans and Minbari had banished their Masters forever.

Then he reflected on the ripples they would cause when they turned this most famous (and by far still busiest) station in the Galaxy into a cloud of debris orbiting a dead world.

Smiling slightly under his mask, the Drakh closed his hand into a fist, extinguishing the light in the room into the glory of darkness.

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"ETA Epsilon Eridani Three, sixty seconds".

Pendergast signed off a report before swiveling his chair around to nod in acknowledgement at his helmsman's comment, trying not to stare beyond him at the gaggle of civilians standing in his command centre.

It had taken him several hours to control the almost instinctive wince that had burst onto his face whenever he had so much as thought about the delegates running around his ship, he considered it an astonishing achievement that now he was able to simply nod politely and direct any questions to Major Gant while he ran off on an urgently needed errand somewhere.

The look however had almost returned when Jack O'Neill had informed him he had invited the IOA group up to the bridge to watch the reversion from Hyperspace.

Unfortunately as Jack now distinctly outranked him and was the nominal mission commander, his first instinct to have the bridge put into a class one lockdown was no longer an option.

The diplomats on his bridge at least were good at hiding their feelings about him, the ship and their mission, they would have to be. They had been chosen by their countries to be let 'in' on the Stargate program via the IOC and so had been carefully screened and briefed by their various Foreign Offices and State Departments.

But they still stared completely slack jawed at the happily twisting whirlpool of hyperspace outside the bulkhead, even after almost fifteen minutes in transit.

"Are we there yet?"

Smiling slightly, Pendergast slowly rose from his chair out of respect for the person behind that voice, turning to watch General Jack O'Neill, Doctor Daniel Jackson and Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter stride onto the bridge, the General glancing enviously towards Pendergast as the trio walked to join the scrum of diplomats. Lionel guessed that the look was directed less at him specifically and more at the flight suit he wore; the General was dressed in an immaculately pressed Class A uniform, as was Samantha Carter behind him.

He knew unlike Hammond, the new CO of the SGC still wore utilities more in line with SG teams, with only a pair of Generals stars added to differentiate him from the personnel around the base. Jack might not be 'one of the gang' anymore thanks to his promotion, but he had flat out refused to wear his dress uniform to work everyday…and rank did have its privileges, few as they were for such a job.

Colonel Carter he noticed wore her dress uniform as if born to it, but then her carrier had sent her to the Pentagon far more then any operational military theater, her 'salad bar' of ribbons reflected this when compared to Jacks bulging array of medals and campaign listings. Daniel was dressed in a conservative very high quality Armani business suit that no normal academic could possibly come close to affording, but of course Daniel was rather more then a normal academic. He was still paid at consultant rates by the United States Air Force and had little need to spend the steadily building pile of cash in his bank account, so he had a rather catching selection of civilian clothes for the rare occasions he wasn't either offworld or 'hanging' as Jack put it at the SGC. As well as a set of well tailored suits for the occasional offworld diplomatic mission with the more advanced cultures the SGC had come into contact with.

Something that quite probably amused the Asgard to no end.

"Coming up on exit point in three…two…one…" Major Gant read from her console and with a flash of white light, the ships autopilot triggered the hyperdrive reversion sequence and let the Prometheus fall back into normal space at precisely designated co-ordinates.

In Babylon Five C&C, Captain Elizabeth Lochley idly tugged at her dress uniform, trying uselessly to get some kind of air into her lungs around the absurdly high collar Earthforce delighted in putting on all their formal uniforms. After a few seconds, she managed to secure a sufficient oxygen flow that she could put off death for at least another ten minutes, letting her get back to reading her book.

The book was titled 'Get the hell out of our Galaxy' and was an advanced copy that her former husband had managed to secure for her as a Birthday present. It wasn't due to go on sale for a week, but orders across the Earth Alliance had already been through the roof. Written by Professor L Count (though in truth a half dozen highly respected Earth academics had really co-authored it with him), there was already growing demand from other alien publishing companies for reprint rights.

The book was so widely in demand because for the vast majority of the Earth Alliance, this was their first look into a war which few of them had seen or heard of until it had finished, but had been at the core of everything that had happened between the assassination of President Santiago and the suicide of President Clark.

Oh to be sure several vid documentaries on ISN had been made with guests arguing for hours on what had really happened, shortly after Clarks death had taken place, but they had been full of (and received as) half speculation and half based on disinformation that had come from Clark's former propaganda machine.

To facilitate writing about the scope of something as large as the Shadow War, Count and his team had been given unprecedented access to the key players in the conflict. Including interviews with the members of B5's former crew, notable persons in Earthdome and the anti Clark resistance, interviews with key Minbari and ISA figures and exclusive interviews with Delenn and Sheridan themselves, the two who had confronted both groups of First Ones at Coriana Six and informed them "their services were no longer required" as the professor had put it.

Lochley hadn't been able to put the book down since it had been shipped to her. She knew as much about the Shadow Wars as the writers did, if not more thanks to her former Husband, but the book was just superbly written.

She had just finished the third chapter, which had detailed the conspiracy between the Shadows, Psi Corps and Clark to murder Santiago, when her executive officer, Lieutenant Commander David Corwin, spoke up.

"Captain…I'm detecting an Energy surge in grid sixteen by eight. EM spike across the board, strength two and rising"

Lochley raised her gaze from the book to the chronometer plugged into the console next to her, noting eleven AM Earth Standard was only about ten seconds off.

"I'll say this for them, they're punctual" the Captain replied, dropping her book into a draw at her station before standing and walking to join Corwin at the primary console overlooking the docking bay.

"Which security bots do we have in the area?"

"Six and eleven. I'm pulling their feeds now" the Commander replied, anticipating her request as the Babcom window shifted to a feed from the tiny robots floating around space.

The cameras showed nothing but starfield at first, then with a hazy purple flash, a ship appeared to almost blur into existence, as if decelerating from a great velocity into realspace.

She would say this for the Prometheus; it sure as hell looked human. Only humans could possibly build something that looked so ugly and deadly at the same time.

"Commander, roll out the welcome matt".

Corwin nodded and taped a control twice.

"Prometheus this is Babylon Five C&C. Welcome to Epsilon Eridani".

There was a delay of a few seconds, then a strong steady voice responded with a slight squeal that was squelched by the stations communications systems. "C&C this is Prometheus, copy that and we're glad to be here. Our diplomatic party is anxious to get the ball rolling".

"Copy that" Corwin stated, pressing another sequence of buttons to access the Security bot's navigational controls and designating several preset waypoints. "Follow the Security bot in front of you into a holding slot, we'll get a shuttle out to you shortly…"

"…and they'll ferry your diplomats aboard. C&C, out".

Pendergasts communication with B5 went almost un-noticed by the gaggle of personnel gawking at the massive structure. Starfuries, shuttles and maintenance bots moved productively through the area around the station, looking like ants next to a mountain. Larger ships such as a pack of White Stars flying from the Jump Gate or a pair of Omega class destroyers at rest next to it were impressive in size to Pendergast…but even they looked completely insignificant next to the mammoth station.

"Did you know this style of Space Station is generally known as an O'Neill type?" Carter commented lightly as Prometheus slowly accelerated after the tiny robot in front of them.

"Get out" Jack grinned, looking at the structure with a new appreciation.

"Yeah the idea came from the writer Gerard O'Neill back in the sixties. A large space station in the shape of a huge rotating cylinder to simulate gravity by centrifugal force".

"I thought the Earth Alliance had artificial gravity technology?" Daniel commented, tearing his glance from the majestic structure to Carter as he thought back to their time on board the Excalibur.

"They do now, although their grasp of the technology is far from perfect. When they built the station, they didn't have that technology and this was the best they could do. It would be too hard to refit the station for artificial gravity technology and there really isn't any need to do so. Of course that means that near the central core of the station, the acceleration imparted by the rotation of the station when compared to the centripetal force…"

The remaining members of SG1 simply stared at her.

Thanks to years of long experience with that look, Carter changed gears.

"So uh, you want to move carefully around there so you don't go floating off".

The remaining members of SG1 nodded.

The lights on the back of the Security Bot turned from green to red and with delicate puffs of its thrusters, started to slow down. The gentle deceleration was completely unnecessary of course, Prometheus could stop on a dime if needed, but it was thoughtful and the helmsman was careful not show off as he brought the ship to a halt next to the gargantuan station that now completely filled the ships port windows.

If there was ever such a thing as a traffic jam in space, Babylon Five would have to come close to it. Hundreds of ships, mostly civilian cargo ships, shuttles, couriers, passenger liners and a handful of warships were crowded into space around the station, a near constant stream of small ships entering and leaving the gigantic structure and the Jump Gate regularly opening and closing as traffic came and left the star system.

With Earth off limits at least for the short term and the Sol system still under a near lockdown status, a huge number of businesses that worked out of the Sol System had opened new offices on Babylon Five. The station hadn't been this busy since the height of the Shadow war, with its nominal population of a quarter million pretty much maxed out. It was only the fact that tens of thousands of people were only staying for a few days at a time that had prevented Babylon Five from starting to turn away people from docking…

All of which made it the perfect place to conduct diplomatic negotiations under the radar, lost in the bustle of business.

Adding to the traffic jam was the shape of an EarthForce mobile spacedock sitting five kilometers above Babylon Five. Quite similar in design to the construction docks that had built the Victory class prototypes, it was only a fifth the size, but it was hyperspace capable and equipped with a modular slipway capable of being built to take ships the size of a Warlock class Destroyer.

Gant's headset beeped slightly, causing her to look down at her board.

"Sir, incoming transmission from an EA shuttle, they say they're hear to pick up the ambassadorial party and bring them to B5". Sure enough, a small shuttle was curving around from B5 and angling for the hanger bay on the Prometheus. It sure looked more comfortable then the tiny cramped utility shuttles they had been planning to use to transfer the staff…

"Acknowledge the signal and pass them off to the hanger deck, make sure they kill the artificial gravity there before they land, those things are not built to operate inside a gravity well unassisted" Pendergast ordered, thinking it would be a rather bad start to their diplomatic mission if an EA shuttle crash landed on their flight deck.

Presently, Richard Woosley stepped away from the diplomats, all doing their best to effect a look of detached interest in the events outside the window – and all failing miserably.

"Colonel, my thanks for getting us here. I will endeavor to get your crew cleared for shore leave with Captain Lockley and I have no doubt they will carry themselves with a pride and manner that will do the Air Force - and our planet" he added for the benefit of the other great power representatives behind him, "proud".

Pendergast read between the lines easily.

Keep them the hell out of any bars and under control!

"It was out pleasure Mister Woosley, we'll be here to take you back on Thursday".

Shaking the offered hand, then the offered hands of the rest of the diplomats who refused to be upstaged, he watched as the former NID agent led them into the bridge access way and towards the elevator.

"Thank God that's over" he muttered when he was sure they were out of earshot, half to himself and half to O'Neill.

It took a very brave Colonel to make comments like in front of a one star General, but Jack and Pendergast had known each other well before his promotion and on his bridge, Jack was more then happy to grant him that leeway.

The man may not be Ronson, but he had more then earned it.

Patting him on the shoulder with a sympathetic smile, Jack walked off the bridge with Sam and Daniel following, catching up with the group as they entered the elevator for the start of their own mission.

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Ambassador Vanessa Bartlett of the Earth Alliance was nervous.

Sure she was one of the most senior ambassadors that Earthdome had working for them off world when the plague at hit, which put her on the spot as Earths defacto off world ambassador to the ISA and its member nations …but that was just a faster then expected trip up to the job she had known would always be hers.

She had managed to survive the Clark Regime without being forced to take a side, no small achievement. Personally, she had felt little but disgust for the man as he completely ruined five years of work rebuilding relations after the Earth Minbari war. But she had survived his blunders…and the aftermath of his reign.

As one would expect, a silent but none the less very real purge had moved through the EA Government after Clark's death. The ex-presidents Inner circle were rounded up rather quickly and put on trial, the ministries of Truth and Peace disbanded and core figures arrested as necessary, though a few of the more well connected had seen the writing on the wall and quietly faded away before they could be arrested, as had many high ranking Psi cops a few years later.

The diplomatic service had not been exempt. People like that idiot Lantze had been 'retired' quietly, having not truly done anything illegal, but not being really suitable for the new order. Which had left carrier diplomats like Vanessa to fill the gap, sent into the front lines immediately as Earth vigorously re-engaged with the Interstellar Alliance and its member nations in a new age of prosperity and peace.

No, she wasn't nervous over the prospect of just another diplomatic negotiation. She had enough experience in negotiating with the Minbari, Drazi, Narn and the Centuari that she felt confident in her ability to handle any alien negotiations easily enough.

What made her nervous were the people she would be negotiating with were not aliens.

They were human.

Oh sure the various races had shown suggestions of abilities their stereotypes didn't hint at. The Minbari would occasionally skirt the edge of the truth to gain an advantage, justifying it to themselves later with some kind of twisted logic. The Drazi could occasionally not leap to their feet snarling and accuse their opposite number of lying to their face, because they were always right. And while she found the Narn charmingly direct, every now and again one could surprise her with a depth of thought she wouldn't have expected.

But humans…no other race she had ever met could ever come close to the skill in negotiations that her own kind could. There was no sterotype that could fit any one human, there was no monolithic culture form which a baseline could be calibrated…there was nothing but polite faces of professional diplomats who knew every trick in the book and wouldn't hesitate to use any one of them.

And these representatives she had to meet knew that fact just as well as she did…and were experts in doing this for a living rather then dealing with alien cultures.

To say even this relatively simple set of negotiations would be a challenge compared to her usual jobs…would be an understatement.

Still, this was her ticket to big things in Earthdome…when the quarantine was lifted of course. Clearing her mind, she put a plesant smile on her face as the airlock door retracted.

She recognized General Jack O'Neill, Colonel Samantha Carter and Doctor Daniel Jackson from the briefing papers Earthdome had forwarded to her, as soon as they stepped onto the red carpet. They were here to play a secondary role in the actual negotiations themselves, but no doubt their opinions would carry great weight with both the negotiation team and their superiors back home.

Behind them she counted another four men and one woman, dressed in conservative 21st century business suits and carrying a mixture of attaché cases and briefcases. Her opposite numbers, with all the skill, wit and instincts that came from a lifetime of living on a non-unified Earth coming out of the Cold War.

She set herself mentally as the group reached the foot of the ramp.

Game on…

As the delegation came to a halt, Captain Lochley stepped forward and snapped to attention shooting off a perfect salute, which O'Neill and Carter returned with equal finesse and respect.

"General O'Neill. Colonel Carter. Doctor Jackson. I'm Captain Elizabeth Lochley, the station commander and on behalf of my crew, welcome aboard". Turning slightly to her right to place the emphasis on the line of people next to her, she gestured and the four started walking.

"Commander David Corwin, my second in command. He'll be liaising directly with you, if there is anything you need, you only have to ask"

"Commander" O'Neill nodded, offering his hand to the junior officer who took it, then Carters and Daniels with a nod and smile.

"Your opposite number for the military briefings, General Lefcourt" the Captain said, pointing to an older balding man with a proud military bearing. The General extended his hand and O'Neill took it in a firm grip.

"President Sheridan spoke very highly of you General. Over the years I've come to consider his judgment impeccable" Lefcourt stated.

"Well you know, he likes nukes, I like nukes…it's a good place to start a friendship" O'Neill shrugged. Lefcourt grinned despite himself; the man had an air of leadership and honesty about him that said everything he needed to know about the man.

He could see why he had been hand picked for this mission.

"Ambassador Vanessa Bartlett of the Earth Alliance" Lochley continued, stepping up to the young women with shoulder length brown hair in a conservative business suit, who directed a practiced smile at O'Neill.

"I'm very glad to meet you General" Vanessa said with a friendly air and shaking his offered hand. "I'm honored President Hayes sent his finest people to usher in what, I hope, will be a new age of peace and prosperity between the long lost brothers and sisters of Humanity".

On the whole, she was rather proud of the elegant little greeting, just flowery enough to avoid going into a speech but long enough to be distinctive.

Jack blinked.

He hated diplomatic missions.

For him, the ideal mission had people that could fit into one of three categories; Friendlies, targets or window dressing.

"Yes…well I never miss a good dimensional jump!" Jack replied with an upbeat grin that looked felt somewhat forced to her, but the Ambassador chuckled politely anyway.

Jack swore he saw a flash of genuine amusement running through the eyes of Captain Lochley, who stepped forward again, leaving Daniel and Carter to exchange greetings with the General as Jack turned to introduce the ambassadors from the IOC to their counterparts.

000000000000000

"Stand by docking umbilical's, keep it slow and steady" Pendergast ordered, trying not to look uncomfortable at the idea of the massive structure all around his ship. Prometheus hadn't been designed to dock at space stations; Earth didn't HAVE a space station outside of the ISS. Nonetheless they had managed to mount some EA spec docking locks with a little ingenuity. All things being equal, they would be keeping the ship locked in place on the scaffolding.

Or rip off under shearing forces and completely ruin his ships paintwork…

"Adjusting for orbital drift, starboard thrusters point two five burst" the Helmsmen called out, his eyes not leaving the screen as he pulsed the thrusters carefully, sliding the last few meters into position on the Majors navigation display.

"Station keeping" Gant ordered

"Station keeping" he confirmed.

"That's perfect Prometheus" the EA dock master declared over the communications channel. We're locking you in now, standby"… and with a jolt more heard then felt thanks to the ships inertial dampeners, they were locked to the refit dock.

"Airlock hard seal, we are docked to the station and secure" Gant reported with a satisfied smile.

"All flight systems to standby" Pendergast ordered, standing up and taking a stretch as the omnipresent humming of the ships engines fell away to nothing. "Major, you have the bridge. I'll be heading over to the station. Get the refits underway ASAP; I want to go for a test drive by the end of the day"

"Understood" she acknowledged as the Colonel strode off the bridge and ducked into the elevator. A short trip later, he arrived at the starboard airlock hatch where a gaggle of technicians were poking at the controls on the airlock.

"The board shows green Colonel" the lead tech said, pointing to the small LCD display mounted on the wall. Pendergast wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of walking across a half jury rigged umbilical into the station when he had perfectly functional Asgard beaming technology, but the orders were not to show that technology off any more then necessary.

Probably because the Earth Alliance would demand access to the technology and the Asgard would send Hermiod to negotiate…

"Well open it up and let's get cracking" Pendergast sighed, stepping into the airlock.

Despite his fears, the crossing into the stations habitation area proceeded smoothly, despite the jarring transition from Prometheus's artificial gravity to zero gravity, then back to simulated gravity in the habitation ring. A junior officer greeted him at the airlock, escorting him to the station office where the person behind the refit project waited, lounging around like he owned the place…which upon reflection, Pendergast decided he probably did.

"Mister Garibaldi, I have to admit I was surprised to hear that you were the crazy genius behind this project" Pendergast greeted B5's former head of security, accepting his outstretched hand in a firm grip. "I was under the impression you had a business to run".

The smartly dressed head of Edgar's Industries smiled and gestured towards a low table, on which steaming cups of what looked (and smelt) like fresh coffee were steaming. Never one to pass up a shot of caffeine, the master of the Prometheus grabbed and sipped, appreciating the smooth but strong bite.

"Well I put together a heck of a team to build Victory and Excalibur. They had the job of forcing Earthforce, Minbari and Vorlon tech to play nice together without exploding like something from an ACME catalogue…they're the best I've ever seen at making strange technology work together". Leaning forward and smiling slightly, Michael saluted the Colonel with his mug. "And your ship is, hands down, the strangest mix of technology I have ever seen".

Pendergast couldn't disagree on THAT score. Prometheus's had gone through three different reactor cores from three different cultures, two weapons refits, two Asgard refits and God only knows how many modifications on the fly. The fact that the ship was so damn effective was partly due to the skill of her crew, and partially an act of God.

Still, unlike the newer Daedalus class ships which had locked down specifications for ease of mass production, Prometheus had been designed to be flexible. Her primary systems were far more forgiving to upgrades and redesigns, making her the perfect candidate for testing new technology that would ultimately be directly designed into the Flight II Daedalus class before production resumed.

"When we're finished with your ship, she'll be twice as well defended, ten times as powerful and about a hundred times uglier then she used to be".

"That would be quite and achievement" Lionel noted dryly as Prometheus 'spun' into view. The massive 'bolted on' additions to her superstructure ran just about the entire length of the ships upper surface. He knew when it was finished heavy grey trinium armor would be layered over it making it look even more blotted. But for now the dull bronze colored additions looked clunky as hell. Most of the internal work to his ship had already been done back at Groom Lake, the final refit wasn't expected to take more then a day…

"…if everything went according to plan" he muttered mostly to himself, hoping for once for a mission where everything DID go as it was supposed to.

Fat chance with Jack O'Neill around of course.

"Well there's a chance of everything being smooth sailing I guess" Garibaldi smirked. "All we need is for your diplomats representing five different nations, the people from EarthGov and the ISA to see eye to eye, while we get completely experimental technology to properly interface with various alien technologies without destroying everything in a fifty klick radius around B5".

Pendergast raised an eyebrow as he turned back from the window.

"Are you always this depressingly paranoid about everything?"

The former security officer simply smiled and leaned back in his chair, taking a quick sip of coffee.

"You'd be amazed how often people ask me that…"

000000000000000

"…And so that leaves us with items seven, eight and nine on the agenda" Richard Woosley declared as he put aside the latest manila folder. He couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. With greater ease then he had dared hope, five of the Great powers on Earth had just laid the groundwork for an alliance that would catapult Earth to the stars, solve dozens of worldwide problems from major environmental issues to some serious health problems and move Earth to major power status in their own Galaxy.

Not too bad for a days work.

"I would move we put off items eight and nine until the arrival of the ISA team tomorrow" Shen Xiaoy commented, shuffling her papers back into order as she scribbled some last notes on her pad, which was already overflowing with a mixture of Mandarin and English scrawl that made little sense to anyone but herself (probably deliberately so now that Woosley came to think of it).

"As they all involve the Interstellar Alliance on some level, little will be served by extending today's session to cover those topics, without their representation".

"I would have to concur with my colleague from China" Chapman nodded in agreement, glancing down at his watch and blinking as he focused on the time. "Good Lord is that the time already? I would suggest then that we call it a day and reconvene at Nine tomorrow, we do have dinner reservations at Seven…"

"If there are no objections Miss Bartlett?" Woosley asked, glancing to his left at Vanessa who was carefully organizing her own hardcopy papers back into her briefcase. He couldn't help but notice she had never had more then one out at a time, carefully replacing each set before retrieving the next.

Trying to make some point he wondered…or just anal retentive?

"None here Richard" Vanessa replied with a smile. She apparently enjoyed using his first name as if they were old friends getting together for a drink rather then professional diplomat's conducting state level negotiations. It irritated him slightly, but he was far too much of a pro to show it. He had worked around spooks at the NID long enough to know how to hide his feelings in negotiations.

He for one was just glad to be in an off world situation that didn't require firepower to solve. And speaking of firepower…

"General? No objections?"

Jack O'Neill who was sitting with his head resting in his hand (which in turn was being supported by his elbow on the table) raised his eyebrows then glanced around the room, taking in the activity he apparently had been oblivious to.

"Uh no…if you must stop for the night, you must stop for the night" he responded, curiously making it sound like half a plea and half a threat.

"In that case, we can call this session closed" Vanessa said formally. "We'll reconvene at nine tomorrow?"

A general murmur of agreement swept around the table.

"Then I'll see you all in a few hours" she smiled as the ground stood.

There was the usual five minutes of handshakes, photographs taken by the official recorder and so on, and then the group broke up. Jack retrieved his jacket from the back of his chair, stifling a yawn as he turned for the exit to find Woosley still waiting for him.

"I hope we didn't bore you too much General" he commented in that dry tone that just suggested he was about to get a lecture.

"Oh no it was fascinating" Jack replied in the same tone. "I mean the way each of the representatives found a way to say the exact same thing over and over again with that same smile on their face"...

Despite himself Woosley smiled as they turned out of the diplomatic conference rooms into the Green Sector corridors.

"It's called diplomacy General. Rank hath its privileges"

"Oh sure. Daniels off talking to Minbari , Centauri and that…uh-"

"Pak'ma'ra" Woosley supplied

-"Pak'ma'ra" Jack agreed without skipping a beat. "Carter is crawling over a fusion reactor the size of the SGC and I'm stuck listing to people talk about a treaty everyone has already agreed to-"

"This is the way diplomacy at this level works General" Woosley admonished him, "I'm surprised you of all people don't see the big picture in this".

"Well if you do, can I get the abridged version?" Jack pleaded as the lift arrived and they stepped in.

"Well it's relatively simple when you get right down to it. How hard do you think it's going to be to hide a hundred brand new orbital defense weapons in Geosynchronous orbit, huge additional allocations from Federal budgets already straining to hide 'black' money, massive introduction of technology from commercially viable fusion reactors to new medical advancements, new materials and computer technology, tens of thousands of military personnel being siphoned off into crewing a new space fleet…" Woolsey's voice trailed off, but Jack got the point.

"You're talking about disclosure" he observed, a tingle going down his spine at that word. Oh sure disclosure had been a possibility all through the SGC's existence. Starting with the death of the reporter Armand Zellick, whose death Jack was convinced had been orchestrated by the 'rogue' NID…part of the reason he found it hard to trust Woosley implicitly. He knew there had been another half dozen incidents where disclosure had been a near thing, most recently when the UK, France and China had picked up enough of the pieces to the puzzle.

But even Jack had to admit that when the Earth Alliance transferred several dozen of its older capital ships to Earth control, each requiring crew numbering in the hundreds to thousands…the jig was going to be up.

Woosley nodded slightly to Jacks question as the lift started moving.

"Yes and when it happens there will be hell to pay in Washington. Both Hayes and his predecessor got support for the Stargate program from key figures in BOTH parties, so at least the Washington circuit will be backing him on everything that happened. But we're still talking about a fundamental shift on a scale Earth has never seen before. More then anything, we'll need to sell this to the American people and the world for that matter. And to do that, we need people in Washington to stand by the President. People who have been out here, doing the kind of things you have done for the last eight years. People who can help him shape the future of this program as it expands. If you thought Kinsley was a thorn in the SGC, well as the saying goes General, you ain't seen nothing yet".

Jack blinked.

"Laying it on a bit thick aren't you?"

"Not at all" Richard disagreed, adjusting his glasses slightly. "A flag officer is as much politician and diplomat as a soldier". The former NID agent smiled slightly as the lift started to slow. "Do you really think General Hammond assigned you to this mission simply to bore you to death?"

With a chime, the lift door slid open and Woosley stepped out, leaving Jack staring at his back for a few seconds as his mind started to piece together everything.

Then he realized the doors were about to close on him and he hurried to catch up.

Reaching his room, Woosley ran his temporary identicard through the reader. Obediently, the door swung open with a whir of hydraulics and he turned to face Jack again.

"I'd start putting some thought into a successor for your position at the SGC. I have no doubt the Joint Chiefs and the President would give their full attention to anyone you would care to recommend for the job". Stepping inside, he turned to face Jack one last time. "Oh and I'd do it sooner rather then later; I doubt you'll be there in three months. I'll see you at dinner.

The door swung back leaving Jack alone in the passage. Fingering his own identicard (and feeling older then his years thanks to the revelation that his carrier had already been mapped out for him by his superiors, the nations of the IOA and the President of the United States), O'Neill stepped into his own quarters and tossed his jacket onto a convenient chair, before flopping gratefully onto his bed.

He ignored the aches in his back that had never been there ten years ago in the field.

"Lights off"

Settling on top of the bed as the lights dimmed, he decided to grab a quick nap before showering for dinner…

And would have if not for a whistling almost buzzing sound from inside his room that really didn't sound like it belonged there…

Instantly Jack was on the move as training beaten into him over twenty years of special operations came to the forefront, swinging out of bed into a crouch as his eyes scanned the dim room. He flicked the tiny strap on his left wrist, feeling the reassuring bump of a subspace emergency transponder; one touch of it would activate the entire delegations transponders and beam the entire diplomatic party to the Prometheus. He held off using it, scanning the half familiar room for anything that looked like a threat-

"Hello General!" a deep, booming and downright boisterous voice suddenly echoed from his left, his eyes automatically tracking and finding nothing for several seconds…then a blurry distortion appeared, solidifying into a tall regal looking…Minbari, in gold and red dress, staring intently at the General.

"You're not actually planning to activate that transponder are you?" the man asked in an amused tone, waving at where Jack's left hand gripped his wrist, before folding his own hands together across his body into his sleeves.

"Don't know. Considering it...but I haven't decided yet" he replied honestly, not at all put at ease by the disarming smile.

The Minbari laughed a short, sharp bark of amusement.

"I think I like you, General Jack O'Neill. I truly hope you don't activate it; if I may be so bold to guess that it activates your amazing transporter technology. Because it would cut short what could be such an interesting conversation". The Minbari's face became almost wistful for a few seconds. "And I'm afraid I don't get too many of those these days, let alone ones of such…importance".

Slowly, Jack lowered his hand from the transponder tag. Instincts that had saved his life countless times on and off Earth were telling him that he wasn't in any real danger...especially if this Minbari was what he thought it was. A suspicion confirmed when he stood, then poked a finger at the interloper…which passed through nothing but air, causing ripples to flow through the image.

"You're a hologram" Jack stated, receiving a half indignant look, one not reflected in the MInbari's eyes which showed amusement.

"I most certainly am not! I am flesh and blood as much are you are, a Minbari who has been given the honor and privilege of guarding great and terrible secrets far too dangerous to be found by those who would seek them…and my name, is Drall.

000000000

"Commander, I'm detecting a strange reading coming from Epsilon Three" a technician spoke up, startling the crew inside C&C. With the Alpha shift drawing to a close, docking activity on the station had reduced to a crawl, letting the staff in C&C get some minor but necessary work finished before the facility shut down for the night. Smaller secondary command posts were manned 24 hours a day across the station in the docking bays, security office and traffic control. But C&C itself only ran business hours, excepting when in crisis mode of course.

As "business hours" were now drawing to a close, so was the Alpha shift and the personnel were almost without exception looking forward to a relaxing evening in their quarters or down in the Zocalo.

David Corwin was not one of them.

He looked up from his station in irritation.

This was the last thing he needed right now. The Captain was off in an intelligence briefing with General Lefcourt, the semi formal dinner with the 'Earth' ambassadors was in two hours and he was in the middle of preparing for it. The last thing he needed was some concern about Epsilon Three. The planet constantly put out strange minor energy fluctuations the command staff wrote off as unimportant and harmless.

But four years under Commander Ivanova and Captain Sheridan had taught him the importance of checking out anything that happened on that planet, so he stepped behind the junior officer's station to glance at her screen…and froze. A beam of energy with a very specific wavelength was focused right on B5. Glancing at the analysis of the energy, he recognized it instantly and hit his link.

"Station Three to Captain Lochley…"

0000000000

"So…who are you?"

"Ah. A loaded question. One that defined part of the greatest conflict this Galaxy has ever seen. Curious that you should ask it, under these circumstances"…

Jack blinked.

"Uh…actually I just wanted to know who you are?"

Drall chuckled at himself.

"Please forgive me General. I don't talk to people that often and I can get a little, how shall we say, carried away? I don't suppose the most excellent Asgard sensors on your ship have been directed at the planet we are orbiting?"

Jack's eyes narrowed. Hologram or no, he knew far too much about the advanced technology from the Asgard that was built into Prometheus, information that had been shared with only a few very select people inside the Interstellar Alliance and Earth Alliance.

"Not as far as I know…I mean…its…brown" Jack replied, summing up just about everything he knew about the dusty ball known as Epsilon Three.

"True enough General if you only look at the skin. Under this deceptive crust lies a wondrous machine, a Great Machine if you will; a part of the Army of Light that won our freedom from the Vorlons and Shadows". Drall's eyes grew distant as he spoke, as if reflecting on those terrible years,

"I pledged the technology and resources of this world to defend this station against the Darkness. I had assumed, with the Shadows vanquished, that guarantee would no longer be necessary".

Drall's lip twitched.

"My assumptions were…wrong".

Deep in hyperspace, close to a dozen warships flanked by arrays of small cruisers and raiders moved with confidence, a huge shadow in the red mists accompanied by yet more escorts following close behind.

The entire group closed steadily on the Epsilon Eridani system.

"They are the servants who seek to become the masters. The Drakh, those you fought at Earth half a year ago have learned of the alliance you seek to forge here today, and they will stop it…if you do not stop them".

"How much time do we have?" Jack asked, grabbing for his jacket on the chair and not stopping to ask such silly questions as 'how do I know you're telling the truth'. That would shortly attend to itself. If the Drakh were coming, they had to be ready. If they weren't and this was all some practical joke, well, if it got him out of that damn dinner…

"I would estimate perhaps twenty of your minutes" Drall stated.

"Great" Jack muttered, swinging his jacket on in haste and grabbing his standard issue SG team radio from his pocket…but getting nothing but silence from it. Jack stared at it in confusion.

"My presence here interferers with radio waves, excuse me" Drall apologized then vanished.

"Hey wait a minute!" Jack demanded the empty room.

Drall reappeared.

"Can't you do anything to help with the defense?"

Drall's perpetually merry face fell as he sighed in frustration.

"I'm truly sorry General, I am afraid Epsilon Three's rotation has taken my primary defensive weapons out of alignment with the station. The Drakh have planed their attack well". His face suddenly lit up again as a new thought crossed his mind. "Oh and please tell Doctor Jackson he is more then welcome to come down and have a chat with me, assuming we all survive the next hour. He and I have much to talk about. And you General have nineteen minutes left".

Drall faded again and this time his radio hissed as its transmitter came back online. Simultaneously, the display built into the bulkhead flickered then flashed as a voice broke through static from its speaker.

"G---en------eill---ear this? --neral O'Neill please respond?"

Jack stepped up to the display as it activated, the static cleared to show a rather concerned looking Captain Lochley.

"There you are; General, we weren't able to reach you. We detected a strange energy reading from the planet and…well…this may sound a little strange, but-"

"-did a Minbari just appear in my quarters named Drall?" Jack finished.

"Actually, yes" she said with a smile. Behind her, O'Neill saw General Lefcourt in the frame and guessed he was in her office. "May I ask what he wanted?"

"Well he wants to talk to Daniel, apparently they have a lot to talk about. Oh and he decided to let us know there is a Drakh assault fleet about oh…" Jack paused to check his watch "eighteen and a half minutes away from launching an all out attack".

Lochley's face paled and Lefcourt stepped up level with her.

"Coming here General?" he asked with a tight look, clearly not pleased with this news.

"Yeah, apparently they are rather put out at the idea of Earth and…Earth allying against them".

"I'm not that surprised" Lefcourt responded with a raised eyebrow. "Anything else?"

"Just that the planets weapons are not going to be of much help, apparently they don't have a line of sight right now…or something".

"Terrific" Lefcourt muttered. "Alright, you better get back to the Prometheus General. Do you want to take the Ambassadors with you?"

Jack shook his head.

"They'll be safer here; we can go all out to protect the station if they're not on board. I'll place Prometheus and her fighters at your disposal for the duration of the engagement".

"My thanks General, once again we are in your debt".

"It's our asses too this time" Jack pointed out. "Besides, let's not start the victory dance until the fat lady sings".

Lefcourts eyes shifted left and right and Jack made a note to explain that particular saying to him if they lived through the next hour.

"Uh quite. Lefcourt out".

The screen switched to a BabCom logo, then fell dark. Retrieving his radio, Jack flicked to the preset for the Prometheus and squeezed the transmitter.

"Prometheus this is Sierra Gulf Charlie Alpha, come in".

There was a pause of a few seconds, then-

"Major Gant here, reading you five by General."

"Tell me you're ready to get underway in less then ten minutes".

There was a pause on the other end.

"Upgrades are complete and powered, but not tested…uhh, we're not scheduled to leave space dock until oh six hundred tomorrow morning Sir but-"

"Yes or no Major" he demanded as he turned and strode for his door.

There was another short pause.

"Everything except the main cannon is one hundred percent, but we haven't tested all of it".

"You'll be testing it now. Sound General quarters and get into space in the next ten minutes. Then get ready to beam myself, Daniel and Carter to the bridge".

"Acknowledged" Gant replied before cutting the channel.

Orders had been given. Questions could wait.

Ignoring the ambassadorial quarters on his right, Jack walked to the left and pounded on both doors next to his own room. Unsurprisingly, only one door opened, both Sam and Daniel were inside the Doctors quarters discussing the days events.

"Hey Jack. How'd the negotiations go?" Jackson asked with a slight smirk. He probably felt this entire thing was rich retribution for Jack constantly blocking his attempts to get to Atlantis.

Jack made a mental note to forestall any new application to transfer to the Atlantis base.

"Oh you know. Can't wait for tomorrow. But right now we've sort of got a Drakh problem".

"Drakh Sir?" Carter questioned, stepping up next to Daniel.

"Yeah there is a whole damn fleet approaching. I told Lochley a minute ago-"

Right on que, sirens started to scream and lights flash throughout the station.

"We've got to get back to the Prometheus" Jack finished, raising the radio to his lips with a quick look around. "Gant, beam us up". Smiling, he turned to Sam and Daniel. "I've always wanted-"

The trio vanished in a flash of light-

-and reappeared on the bridge of the Prometheus.

"-to say that" he finished.

"General, Colonel, Doctor" Pendergast greeted the three ex members of SG1 as they materialized on his bridge. "May I presume Sir, to ask what the hell is going on?"

"We've got incoming in about-" Jack quickly checked his watch "-sixteen minutes and they're none too happy about this treaty" Jack replied.

"Drakh?" Pendergast guessed.

O'Neill nodded.

Lionel Pendergast hissed out a breath through his teeth as he sat down in his command chair. "Major, status?"

"Docking umbilicals are releasing now, sublight drives are spinning up and will be hot in sixty seconds". Gant tapped several buttons, switching from ship utilities to the X303's weapons systems. "Our interceptors and pulse cannons are operational. Railguns and missile batteries are in the green. Four Mark Eights in the tubes, the rest of the magazines are loaded with Mark Fives".

"Only four Nukes?" Jack asked in surprise. Pendergast winced.

"Each of the Snakes flight leaders carry a full load of Mark Sevens. But as for us, well, Colonel Caldwell loaded up almost Area-51's entire stockpile before he left. Given the difficulty of re-supply from Atlantis…"

"Point" Jack frowned, remembering in irritation that it had seemed such a good idea at the time. "Carry on Major".

"Shields are operational" Gant continued. "Main cannon installation is complete and diagnostics are green, but we haven't tested it yet.

"Keep the main cannon powered down for now. I'd rather not spend that much energy on something that might backfire into us. Fighter status?"

"Snake Eater and Goa'uld Busters are standing to…but Captain Cleary and Lieutenant Boyd…"

"Oh damn, I forgot about them".

"What?" Jack demanded as with a deep thud, the ships sublight engines came online.

"Cleary and his Rio got into something of a drinking contest with a bunch of Narn's on the station" Pendergast put it delicately.

"Did they win?" Jack demanded, not concerned about their violation of standing orders about getting wasted in the Zocalo.

"Floored them" Pendergast confirmed with a hint of a smile. "But they're laid up in medlab on B5 drunk as lords, so we're down two pilots…and we don't have any spares".

"You do now" O'Neill commented.

Pendergast raised an eyebrow slightly at the idea of a Brigadier General flying around in an F-302 blasting enemy ships. And not just any Brigadier, but Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter. If those two died on his watch-

"With all due respect sir, the last time a General flew a combat mission for the Air Force was sometime in World War Two, General Hammond will have my birds for breakfast if you get shot down out there-"

"We don't have much of a choice Colonel" Jack pointed out. Although he knew that despite their rank difference, Pendergast as the Prometheus's commander had final say on such matters in a combat situation. He watched as the officer mulled over the possibilities and, as he had predicted, having one more fighter out there trumped any other concerns given the expected odds.

"Okay, if you want to replace Boyd, I'll authorize that. But the rest of the command structure for the wing-"

"-will stay exactly as it is" Jack agreed.

Pendergast nodded and prayed he wasn't making a mistake.

"His 302 is in launching bay one. Good hunting".

With a nod and a salute from Carter which the Colonel dutifully returned, the two turned and sprinted from the bridge.

Exchanging a look with Doctor Jackson, Pendergast returned to his chair and cleared his mind for the battle ahead.

"Sublight engines are online" Major Gant announced as she completed the abbreviated checklist for her hurried power up sequence.

"Ahead slow until we clear the scaffold then bring engines to standard thrust. Communications, signal the Lexington we are standing by for orders.


	19. Chapter 8 A Diplomatic Incident part 2

Hello again Everyone, I'd like to thank everyone who was reviewed, it is very much appreciated by the Chronicles team. I'd like to thank Chris again for such an increadibly well written chapter. Again I apologize for the bad breaks between sections butthere's nothing we can really do about it. On another note we've changed the Title. Since this is book one it needed a name so we changed it to Book 1 "The Gateway"

A Diplomatic Incident Part II

Commander Corwin glanced up as Captain Lochley strode into C&C. She moved briskly, but not rushed, harried or even at all concerned about the situation. Instead, she swept her gaze across the personnel standing watch, returning their nods briskly as she moved to her own console, logging in before turning to look at her XO.

"Status?"

Corwin glanced back down at his station.

"All civilians are in designated shelter areas. The defense grid is coming online. Delta Squadron is on patrol, Alpha squadron is hot in the Cobra bays ready for drop ten seconds after the order is given. Damage control teams are standing ready and security is deployed for possible internal defense".

Lochley nodded once again, turning back to her own console and staring at the sensor readouts repeated there. The system wide sensors showed most of the civilian traffic moving into a high orbit over Epsilon Three, staying well out of what was soon likely to become a battle zone. Traveling down the numerous hyperspace beacons that linked the Epsilon Eridani system, a dozen Hyperspace probes sought the threat Drall claimed was heading for the station. Yet according to the state of the art in Earthforce technology, the Hyperspace region around the station was completely clear of traffic.

Lochley didn't believe that for a second. Unlike most Earthforce Captains, she knew damn well just how technologically advanced the Drakh were.

Although come to think of it, Earthforce as a whole had probably been given a pointed lesson in the Drakhs technology level when they had shown up on Earths doorstep with a Death Cloud, then dropped a Shadow plague into the biosphere…

Regardless, she had to assume the Drakh were closing on B5 right now, using their more advanced navigation systems to stay just far enough off the Hyperspace beacons to dodge patrols or probes and that they would only trigger the proximity alarm as they jumped to normal space. Of course if it hadn't been for Drall's warning, the first indication an attack probably would have been their Jump Points opening, just like it damn near had been on Earth almost half a year ago.

She had come through for Sheridan back then to sound the alarm for Earth, now Drall had come through for her. And she didn't intend to waste his warning.

Setting her hands on her hips, she looked up from the countdown timer and at her second in command.

"Signal the Lexington, we're good to go. Designate Delta squadron subordinate to their flight control and link in our fire control into their data net". Turning back to the window, she saw the Prometheus flash by her end of Babylon 5, moving down towards the other end of the station.

"Close blast doors. Activate defense grid"

Thick beryllium alloy shutters jolted into action, sliding to cover the vulnerable windows and airlocks situated across the station. The shutters were not able to stop much more then a hasty burst from an enemy fighter, but Lochley would settle for not having her retinas burned out by the flash of a fusion bomb.

Across the stations dorsal superstructure, dozens of interceptor batteries unlocked from their cradles or popped up from hidden storage compartments turning to line up on the threat axis as power was routed from the main reactor to the defense systems. Further under them, pulse cannons with bores as wide as a Starfury pushed out of their internal storage bays, casting a forbidding green glow on their area of the station.

"Signal from B5, they report full combat readiness."

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"ETA enemy arrival?" Leftcourt asked, not looking away from the sensor displays, still feeling a little out of breath from jogging from the hanger bay to his command centre and promising for the hundredth time to start exercising again.

"One minute, fifty seconds".

"Any updates on the Foxfire battle group?" Leftcourt asked another officer as he looked over the hyperspace probes. He had sent out a priority one request on the Gold channel as soon as General O'Neill's warning had come through and an EA battle group led by the Warlock class EAS Foxfire had responded.

Of course the fact that they were going to take forty minutes to arrive was something of a problem.

"Last report from the Foxfire was that they're pushing their engines past the redline, but they're still at least thirty minutes away".

"Very well. Continue to transmit reports to Fleet Command" he ordered, not letting the sinking feeling he felt show on his face.

Oh with a dozen Destroyers and a few carriers what an ambush I could set he thought to himself. Then he frowned. And if wishes were fusion bombs…

Two Omegas, four White Stars and Prometheus against a Drakh assault fleet was a rather tall order.

But he hadn't become a General by giving up when the going got tough.

"Signal all ships, assume first positions and launch fighters. Have the drydock begin to fall back towards the Northern planetary pole; assign trident flight to screen her."

Starfuries poured into space. From the two Omega class Destroyers, Auroras and Thunderbolts rippled into the vacuum, forming into strike groups as they swung into formation. From Babylon 5's cobra bays, Thunderbolts dropped into space, firing off their engines as they were thrown clear, curving around to join up with Delta Squadron.

Fighters also angled off the deck of the Prometheus, forming expertly into strike groups that angled off to start running racetrack patterns around Babylon 5. These were the backline that were to anchor Leftcourts simple but brutal defense of the station, brand new F-302B fighters from Area-51, so new in fact that several of their pilots complained they could still smell fresh paint inside the cockpits.

It had taken some effort to upgrade the F-302's on the Daedalus to the new F-302B standard, so much so that only half her fighter wing had been switched over before she had left for Atlantis. Their shear effectiveness in mock dogfights against Thunderbolts (which had led to many irritated EA wing commanders buying huge rounds of drinks for the USAF pilots) had generated interest in an accelerated mass production schedule, leading to the question of where to get the spare parts to refit 302's.

A hunch followed by a little digging by an Earth Alliance logistics officer had struck pay dirt.

The SA-25 Badger class Starfury had been a relatively uninspiring craft. Its heavier then normal pulse cannons were fearsome enough in their own right, but the craft lacked a reactor that could give it real endurance in an all out brawl. When combined with its relatively limited maneuverability, it had fallen out of favor after the Minbari war ended. The new, maneuverable, and heavily armed Thunderbolt had proven an ample replacement, leaving thousands of Badgers just gathering dust in depots all across the Alliance. But the engines and weapons had proven to be easily adapted into the F-302B design.

All that was left was dividing them between the Earth Alliance and IOA powers.

Idly, Jack wondered if anyone had actually tested these new ships yet…

"Busters, you are cleared to launch".

Putting all irrelevant thoughts out of his mind, Jack checked his straps one last time as yellow warning lights strobed on the hanger deck. The flight suit he had hurriedly changed into felt too tight around his shoulders, but beggars couldn't be choosers and he sure as hell wasn't going into combat wearing his dress uniform.

"Carter you ok back there?" he called over the intercom, noting he hadn't heard from her since the preflight checklist was completed. He felt a twinge of guilt over 'volunteering' her for this mission without even asking her, but he knew deep down that she, like him, preferred to be able to do something in a fight rather then be turned glorified observers.

"Good to go Sir, just double checking the new readouts. I've never taken a 302B into combat before".

"Well it's just like riding a bike" Jack commented…then decided he could expand on that statement somewhat. "You know as in the whole getting back into practice thing after not doing so for a long time, not any kind of peddling motion that…how long until we launch?" Jack switched tracks, closing his eyes and strapping on his oxygen mask.

"Final checks. Engines?"

"Check".

"Inertial Dampeners?"

"Check"

"Hyperdrive?"

"Check…wait, we have a hyperdrive?"

"A prototype Area-51 installed" Sam explained. It's basically another Naquadriah reactor-"

"Ugh not again" Jack muttered under his breath.

-"but thanks to some EA technology, we've built in a buffering system similar to the one the Prometheus used to use for her Naquadriah reactor, but small enough to fit into the 302."

"Just make sure the damn things turned off. I'd rather not jump out to the Vorlon Homeworld by pressing the wrong button".

Carter smiled and strapped on her own mask before glancing at the counter.

"Three...two…one…launch".

Jack tripped the breaks and gunned his ion engines, flinging his fighter down the flight deck and into space, a trio of F-302's pouring out from behind him to join the twenty others already moving to their positions.

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Corwin's board chimed loudly in the dead silence of C&C. The officers and crew who knew what it meant glanced at each other then settled into their stations and brace for the coming battle. On Corwin's tactical display, a wave of red THREAT icons spilled over the hyperspace sensor readouts, the Drakh fleet appearing at precisely the time Drall had predicted.

"Jump Gate activated….here they come!"

The Jump Gate orbiting Epsilon Eridani Three flashed into life, a vortex of energy warping into a conduit for the assault fleet. Dozens of starfish shaped Drakh raiders swarmed into the system, fanning out expertly to secure a hemisphere of space around the Jump Gate.

The tactic was an old one, used by races all over the Galaxy. Jump gates were effectively inviolate targets in war; every side needed them equally to maintain the beacon network that made faster then light travel possible. By sending their armada through the gate rather then just opening their own jump point, they simultaneously prevented any non jump capable craft escaping and could guard against anyone coming to help. The expandable formation of small craft would also provide something of a shield for the heavier units as they themselves arrived, just in case any defenders DID defy conventional logic and started shooting at the Jump Gate.

At least such went the theory.

A wave of white energy pulses slammed into the Drakh raiders from the rear. Barreling down from above and behind the Gate, a quartet of White Stars rolled into the fight with wingtip cannons blasting, their fire lanes carefully choreographed to avoid hitting the active Jump Gate.

A quarter of the Drakh raiders were blasted to vapor before the rest started moving, accelerating into radical curves to bring their nose mounted cannons to bear on their tormentors. Rather then break off and give the Drakh a clear shot, the Ranger crewed ships simply accelerated straight through the disintegrating formation, firing without pause to blow open an exit path before blasting out the other side, corkscrewing away in an evasive pattern.

Enraged by their losses, the Drakh collected themselves and dove after the fleeing Minbari ships, abandoning the Jump Gate to the heavier units following behind them. Moving in an ironic harmony of precision and order, the agents of Chaos expertly closed the distance with their ancient foe. Just about every race in the Galaxy still found it near impossible to penetrate the sophisticated stealth systems of Minbari ships. The Drakh however were not 'just any race'. Their Shadow enhanced sensor technology cut through the distortions being thrown out by the White Stars with brutal directness, the Drakh correspondingly adjusted their aim points and let loose.

White Star Sixty took a volley of fire to its starboard wing that ripped off the drive pod, sending the ship into an uncontrolled spin. The ranger at the helm controls with exceptional skill managed to stabilize the ship, but that simply made it a sitting duck as six raiders struck it simultaneously, detonating the hybrid ship into a ball of fire. Together, the Drakh snarled their victory and were making ready to claim their next kill - when the rearmost flight of raiders shouted in alarm.

Spiraling down from where they had clamped onto the lowest strut of the Jump Gate, twelve Minbari fighters roared into the fray, spraying fire from their trio of Neutron cannons and smashing their targeted ships into clouds of high speed shrapnel. Having waited for this moment in Leftcourts hurriedly thought out battle plan, the three remaining White Stars flipped end for end and brought their weapons once again to bear on their pursuers, letting themselves coast back towards B5.

White and green pulses of light crisscrossed with blue beams as the two mortal enemies tried to bring each other down with no quarter asked or given. A lattice of beams connected a formation of Drakh craft to one of the White Stars, blasting through its Vorlon defense system and causing the ship to erupt in fire. Barrel rolling wildly to evade their own tormenters, the remaining pair of White Stars and eight surviving Minbari fighters returned the favor, firing their weapons to the point of overheating as they sliced, vaporized and detonated the remaining Drakh ships before looping away, the crews angered at the loss of two of their own and hot for revenge.

In Hyperspace, a Drakh watched.

His screening force had been demolished by a group of those cursed White Star class vessels, in an ambush of considerable skill and cunning. His frown deepened as he replayed the attack, so unlike traditional Minbari tactics to layer deception within deception. He had to be seeing the effects of more and more humans moving into the Anla'Shok.

Mentally, he performed the Drakh equivalent of a shrug. With the Shadow plague released on the humans homeworld, their race would become a non existent factor soon enough.

No, what he was concerned about were these "new" humans.

As a senior fleet commander, he had studied the few sensor records the Drakh had of the ship their agents had identified as the "Daedalus" in their engagement at Earth. Part of him could appreciate the glorious destructive power this ship embodied even as he mourned for the Drakh it had slain in the battle and its destruction of their one remaining Planet Killer.

But any respect he had for the technology these newcomers possessed paled in comparison to the hate he carried for them because of their disruption to their ever so carefully laid plans.

The last few months of activity by his people had been the culmination of a plan that had started the day they had left Za'ha'dum for the last time, only minutes before the planet had self destructed.

After months of searching, they found their home.

And not just a home…but a purpose.

Their former masters had once had great hope for the Centuari, watching in delight as they had thrown the Galaxy into Chaos, a great wave of fire that had rolled across the Galaxy and purified the weak, letting the strong re-grow into all they could be.

Until the fateful day when the Shadows had been betrayed by the one who had shown such potential. Until the day Londo Mollari had turned his back on those who had done so much for him.

The Shadows had left this nursery of the young ones with the rest of the First Ones, but they had told their children to continue what they had started. And they had. The Centauri had proven an able tool for their purposes after they had driven them away from the Interstellar Alliance, hurt them and forced them to turn inwards.

These events had been simply notes in the song they had composed, one that sung their revenge on those who had sent their masters away. Their attack on Earth with a planet killer was to be the first of many such attacks, but thanks to that damned John Sheridan and these newcomers interference, they had failed.

The Drakh had gone in with a contingency plan of course; they had learned that lesson well from their hard experiences. The bioweaopn had been successfully deployed and they had faded back to their hidden bases. The Earth Alliance, the Anla'Shok and the Minbari Fleet were even now tearing known space apart to find their people and wipe them out, but it was almost as if the Drakh did not exist for all the success they had had in their searching.

But a chance to derail this treaty, THAT could not be missed. Caressing a stud next to the hologram of the battle zone, he spoke one word.

"Begin".

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"Stay sharp people, here comes wave two!"

The words were barely out of Leftcourts mouth when the Jump Gate exploded into action again, this time joined by a quartet of extra Jump Points around it. Raiders and an occasional light cruiser streamed out of the Jump Points but their threat paled next to the line of heavy cruisers that moved out of the Jump Gate. Three-five-eight-TEN!...ONE could turn an Omega into Swiss cheese within five minutes, TEN of them were the universes idea of a sick joke. He watched with a growing sense of cold detachment as they separated into a lead group of six and reserve of four which held back from the spearhead, allowing the six to start their advance.

That confident are you? Good he thought, highlighting the rear targets and assigning them on his command board.

"Ahead point five sublight" he ordered as he settled into his chair and strapped on his restraints. "Do we have a targeting solution?"

"Yes sir" his weapons officer acknowledged as he continued to assign primary, secondary and tertiary targets to the fleet. "Estimate optimal firing range in thirty two seconds".

"Very well" Leftcourt said and started to do what every Soldier since ancient times on Earth hated doing.

He waited.

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"We're receiving targeting telemetry from the Lexington." Gant reported as data scrolled across her screen, with a quick keystroke she pushed it across to the bridges main screen to her left. Pendergast glanced at it then frowned. The plan was risky as hell. Potentially highly effective, but risky.

Then again, they were hardly going to win this battle playing it safe…and as he had three of the four members of SG1 on hand, given their history, the risk in the plan perversely guaranteed success.

"Time?" he asked, trying to force himself not to grip his chairs arms. Erin Gant looked at the counter.

"Lexington will engage in fifteen, we're mark plus ten".

"Alright, release safeties on all Mark eights, signal weapons free status to the fighters and lock the autopilot in".

The rumble of the ships reactor slowly increased as energy diverted, making it sound almost as if the ship herself was eager for the battle to begin.

Patience he thought to himself as the cloud of red icons slowly closed on the scattering of green icons. Just wait for it…

"Not yet" Leftcourt breathed, half to himself and half to his bridge crew who looked understandably tense as the swarm of dull brow/yellow ships closed in.

Come on you bastards, just a little further he thought to himself…then as the Drakh crossed an invisible line-

"Execute!"

Instantly the Lexington's power plant was thrown into overdrive followed a microsecond later by the Atlas's. Already sitting outside of the Drakhs left most escort stream as they steadily closed on B5, the two Omegas accelerated into a slight left turn at maximum thrust, looking for all the world like they were planning to ignore the real threat of the Drakh's heavy cruisers and simply exchange broadsides with the lighter screening elements.

The dozen plasma cannons that lined the hull of each Omega class destroyer opened fire almost simultaneously, the helmsmen on each of the ships carefully rotating to present the maximum number of guns to the Drakh. Their intent was not so much to score kills (though they took every one that they got as Raiders shattered and cruisers shuddered under the barrage) but to aggravate and disrupt.

And it was working. The neat lines of raiders were breaking up with an occasional light cruiser tagging along, swarming away from the assault fleet's flanks and heading right for the two Earth ships. Taking a deep breath, Leftcourt flicked the all hands link.

"All hands: Brace for maneuvers. Hard right rudder, prepare for crash stop and stand by main guns".

Lexington's thrusters fired, shoving the ship into a hard right turn at full thrust. Around them, the space frame groaned in protest at the abuse, the shear torque of the turn on the rotating section would have been enough to rip the ship in half if not for the recently installed Minbari / Centauri designed inertial compensation systems.

Even so, for a few seconds it felt to Leftcourt like a grizzly bear had decided to sit on his lap and he cursed the fact that the SGC's advanced inertial dampening technology was still months away from any real integration into EA ship design.

The Drakh were taken by surprise and the swarm of Drakh ships scrambled to get the hell out of the way.

Tough though raiders might be, none of them really felt like getting sideswiped by the Omegas.

In seconds, what had been orderly ranks of ships about to start tearing into the starboard decks of the Lexington became a confused mass trying to avoid being run over as they broke in almost every direction, immediately being pounced on by flights of Starfuries that broke from their holding orbits behind the Omegas and charged into the battle, blazing away with wild abandon.

"Main guns on Lexington and Atlas now bear on Target Alpha General" the weapons officer called out as solution lights on his panel switched from red to green. Leftcourt nodded then hung on as his ship shuddered under fire from a pack of raiders.

"Fire at will Commander, but make them count".

The two Omegas opened fire simultaneously, bow guns sending two dozen packets of plasma into the lead Heavy Cruisers stern, shattering armor and chewing into the hull with brutal force. Barely had the explosions started to clear when the guns switched over and a quartet of scarlet beams blew through the gaping wound. Debris, bodies and atmosphere vomited back out the hull breach as the EA ships mercilessly continued their slash and burn attack, until the far side of the ships stern exploded, sublight engines flickering as the mighty ship started to list.

The core Drakh fleets broadside weapons swiveled to target the two ships and return their impudence by blowing them out of space, but here the suicidal brilliance of Leftcourts strategy revealed itself. His ships were still holding behind the reforming line of light cruisers and surrounded by swarms of raiders that were duking it out with the Starfury packs. Any long range counter fire had just as much chance of blasting their own ships as those belonging to the Earthers. And if their ships attempted to disengage, they would become sitting ducks to the Earth ships, which would no doubt run close pursuit on them.

On his Mothership, the Drakh commander ground his teeth- a useful human habit he had picked up- then ordered the light cruisers to redouble their efforts and redirected the unengaged upper and lower escort formations to help finish off the Earth ships quickly. He didn't even care if they killed them, it was sufficient to swamp them and hold them up as his main battle line speed up for their attack run. One pass and Babylon 5 would be nothing but a memory.

Their memory.

"Three, two, one, Mark!-"

And in a blur of motion, Prometheus leapt into hyperspace, emerging scant milliseconds later to the rear of the Drakh cruisers, swinging down to confront the Drakhs unguarded rear with a full speed attack. On the bridge, Daniel held on for dear life as the ships helmsmen maneuvered a ship the size of the USS Nimitz like it was an F-15, the brown hued hull of the nearest Cruiser blurring past scant meters from the ships shield perimeter.

"Isn't this a little close?" Daniel managed to get out in a half choked voice, his eyes wide behind his glasses as he watched weapons mounts, airlocks and thrusters streak by the windows, resisting the urge to duck.

"Yes' Pendergast admitted, "but they can't shoot at us if we're this close without risking damage to their own ship. Major, talk to me"

"The Drakhs second and third reserve formations are moving to engage Leftcourt" Gant replied as she studied her sensor readouts. "Lexington and Atlas are starting to get swamped under and taking heavy damage", the Drakh don't appear to be responding to our presence yet.

The Omegas headlong rush had been stalled by heavy fire from the light cruiser formations as they reinforced, pulled together and started to beat back the Earthforce ships superior firepower, containing them in an escape proof globe of ships. They were more then happy to take their time and make the impudent humans pay dearly for their actions and the deaths they had caused this day to their kind.

"Then let's see if we can get the Drakhs attention" Pendergast ordered as the X303 approached the long lances that formed the bow of the rearmost Cruiser. "Weps, all Mark Eights, fire for effect on targets six through ten, helm decelerate to point two after launch"

"Aye, firing one through four" Major Delouse acknowledged, highlighting four of the red 'D-CRSR' icons on his sensor display and depressing the enable.

Newly installed EM catapults fired, flinging Earth Alliance built missiles into the void. Equipped with Mark Eight Naquadah enhanced nuclear warheads and powered by high thrust ion jets, the missiles closed from point blank range at great velocity and with no warning, smashing into their chosen ships and detonating their warheads.

A series of brilliant white stars were born for a split second in the Epsilon system that would have blinded Captain Lochley had she not closed her blast doors, a funeral pyre for the quartet of Heavy Cruisers that now had become so much debris and vapor.

"That's a kill of targets Six through Ten" Delouse declared as Prometheus ripped out of the far side of the explosion.

With more speed then Pendergast could have believed, the Drakh cruisers whipped around to see what had happened; when all they saw was a small ship and a debris field where four of their sisters had been, they let loose.

Energy washed over the Prometheus's shields, barely even shaking the ship as it bobbed and weaved closer towards the jugernaughts in their path.

"Forward pulse cannons, focus fire on target Alpha, lets make this a quick pass" Pendergast ordered, keeping half an eye on the two Omegas coming up on his Starboard side. The engagement was a mere three minutes old and already the two proud ships were starting to look like they had decided to race through an asteroid field to get here thanks to the Drakh.

"Sir, the final Drakh escort stream is breaking off and accelerating towards Babylon 5" Gant warned.

"Signal the Snakes and Busters to engage when they reach their engagement zones and alert Captain Lochley" Pendergast replied without looking away as Prometheus's bow guns opened up, ripping without mercy into the already heavily damaged Drakh ship. It had rotated to soak up the firepower from the Omegas and shield its sisters as they approached B5, more or less becoming a sitting duck as Delouse poured firepower into the breaches over its stern. While Pendergast respected the dedication of the ships Captain in offering himself as a target to shield his comrades, business was business and it was still firing back. Great chunks flew off the hapless ship as it and its sisters tried throwing everything they had at Prometheus, not even denting her Asgard shielding as she streaked past Alpha, now burning fiercely at the stern.

In fact everything was going more or less according to plan…which was just the right time for a spanner to be thrown into the works.

With a crash, Prometheus jumped as if it had just run over a starship sized speed hump. The officer at the sensor systems control console at the front right of the bridge was thrown out onto the deck and didn't get back up, Daniel who was the only person on the bridge without a job to do, leapt forward to tend to the blissfully unconscious technician as sparks showered the back of the bridge.

"What the hell was that?"

"Sir starboard shield generators three and four just went offline" Gant reported as a damage control window flashed on her secondary screen.

"How the hell is that possible?" Pendergast demanded as a second shower of sparks broke out. He ignored it; from the sounds of the technicians behind him the situation was well in hand, medics rushed onto the bridge to deal with the down crewman, in record time he noticed.

"It looks like the Generators were not properly remounted after the hull work on the main cannon, when the Drakh fire washed over their positions the momentum shook lose some of their power feeds and-".

"What does that mean for shield strength" the Colonel demanded, focusing on the critical issues and deciding to ignore the technobabble until the after action report needed to be written.

A new alarm sounded on Gants board and her face went bleak.

"Shield grid failure within three minutes".

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"The fourth Drakh wing is accelerating right for us people, here's how it's going to play out. Snakes, we're going straight up the middle break by flights and keep moving. Flight leaders, you each get two cruisers everyone else protect them! Busters, hang back and spread out at least two hundred klicks from the station, catch anything we miss. Anything less then two hundred out belongs to B5; don't follow into the red zone unless you want to get Alpha Squadron antsy. Let's move it people!"

The long line of F-302's blasted out of their holding patterns, engines burning a hot blue as they raced to intercept the incoming forces. It had taken an act of will not to go to the aid of the Lexington group as they fought impossible odds or to the Prometheus when she had made her predictably flamboyant entrance into the battle, but their patience was about to pay off as they moved in to unleash their firepower, half of the group jumping ahead and half breaking off into a screen, ready to pounce on anything that kept coming

"This is White Star eighteen, we'll blow the door open, you rob the vault" a ranger that could only be human commented as the two Minbari gunships fell into formation with the 302's.

"Roger that eighteen, good hunting" the wing commander responded as the two ships accelerated ahead slowly.

Well Slowly wasn't really accurate Jack thought, the ships were going almost full throttle, it was just that the 302's on cruise speeds were only slightly slower then a Whitestar on full burn. But if they blew the door open for them, that was fine with him.

"Echo flight, stick with me and keep those raiders off my back" Jack ordered, angling down from the rest of the 302's with three other fighters behind him. The firefight with the bulk of the enemy forces far off to port looked vicious, but if they didn't stop this splinter, their efforts would all be for nothing.

The Whitestars spiralied in, the majority of the Raiders broke to deal with them, the gunships angeling off to the side and drawing them away from their screening duties.

"Tally one Raider squadron, nose, three hundred Kilometers, time to intercept fifteen seconds" Carter warned as the Drakh finally spotted the F-302's burning for them and sent their raiders in.

"Looks like some of them didn't take the bait" Jack commented as the first explosions started off to his right as the Minbari opened fire.

"We've got them Nine" one of his flight members - was it Johnson? – commented, his and two other F-302's leapfrogging forwards past Jack towards the incoming Raiders.

"Snake Ten, Fox Four Two!"

"Snake Eleven, Fox Four Two!"

"Snake Twelve, Fox Four!"

Five missiles detached from the F-302's and burned down range, their seeker heads locked onto the relatively large Drakh raiders. For a second, the raiders hesitated between firing at the F-302s and trying to shoot down the missiles before deciding on both.

Blue beams reached out for the twelve fighters, failing to hit any of them as they rolled, dodged and sidestepped. The missiles although far smaller and faster at least weren't trying to dodge and the fire team of Raiders assigned to anti missile duty opened fire. They even managed to tag three of Echo flights missiles and shred them, but two missiles reached their targets and the high explosives snapped their target ships spines. Flashes of light in Jacks peripheral vision suggested that other missiles were detonating, but he ignored them as he focused on his battle. Three Raiders remained to intercept his flight group, placing themselves directly in his flights path as if daring them to run the gauntlet.

Challenge accepted Jack thought to himself, his thumb flicking the coolie hat on his flight stick to its maximum setting, settling the 'floating' gun sight onto the nearest raider and tightening up on the triggers.

The two Pulse cannons nestled in his fighter's fuselage opened fire. Instead of the typical discrete pulses that usually came from Starfury cannons, elongated spears of energized plasma looking more like a Death Gliders staff weapons then anything were thrown out with each stroke of the trigger, joined by dozens of others from the formation, bracketing the Drakh in a blistering salvo of weapons fire.

Waves of azure energy crashed into the raider Jack targeted joined by fire from the rest of his flight that dug deep into its side, sending it staggering out of formation into a wild spin, atmosphere blasting out of a massive breach. It was all the 302's in Jacks flight needed, accelerating rapidly through the gap in the Drakhs line towards the heavier fleet units as the Drakh tried futilely to tag them with their single heavy beam weapon.

In Hyperspace, the Drakh Lord commanding the assault started to painfully understand that while Raiders were fine craft for tearing up freighter convoys in deep space or pack hunters in rapid hit and fade attacks…in a pitched battle, they simply were not suited to dealing with small enemy fighters. He made a mental note to investigate the possibility of their own fighter analogues, then turned back to watch the battle rage.

"Snakes Eleven and Twelve, keep those Raiders busy. Ten, stay on my wing" Jack ordered his flight, continuing to slip and slide his craft towards the wave of Light Cruisers ahead, the Raiders behind twisting around in a struggle against their own inertia

"Copy Lead, luck" Johnson responded, pealing off and pulling into a wicked 180 degree turn with many other F-302's, pouncing on the Drakh screen as they completed their own maneuvers, missiles and plasma cannons swapping fire with fusion beams. Jack wished him luck mentally, but he had his own problems to deal with.

"Transferring target data to your screen General, safeties are off" Carter spoke up, Jack glanced down to see a model of the Drakh cruiser they were gunning for, then glanced back up in time to dodge right and prevent their ship from being impaled upon one of its beam weapons salvos.

"Copy that, yo-yo in five" O'Neill responded as the Drakh cruiser brought all its weapons to bear on him and burn him from the sky. Stomping down on his rudder peddle, Jack slewed his craft out of the line of fire, then shoved his stick towards the floor.

Instantly a wave of G's slammed into him. The 302 still had problems pulling negative G's and while it now compensated for much closer to 100 of the forces rather then the 90 of the original model, he still had to focus to keep his lunch in his stomach and not on his windscreen as he dove through ninety degrees, then yanked back into level flight, now half a kilometer under his previous location, with a perfect line of fire at the Drakh Cruisers belly.

"Snake Nine, Fox four Two!" he declared, thumbing his trigger twice then pulling up into a ninety degree climb, "yo-yoing" back up above the cruiser still trying to burn him from space.

Unfortunately for the Drakh on board, they completely missed the drifting missiles until at the last second they ignited their engines to correct their course, slamming into the centre of the Cruisers ventral hull.

Under them, the centre of the Drakh ship snapped up and out as the spherical detonation of the Mark Seven warheads blasted the ship into two pieces, which drifted away from each other, secondary explosions wracking the hulk as Jack looped away towards his next target flanking the wreck of its sister ship. Spiraling down towards it, he suddenly leveled out and accelerated for it, before pulling up at the last second and barrel rolling over its starboard beam to its ventral surface, the two drifting missiles he had released this time not even needing to correct their courses before impacting and vaporizing the first third of the cruiser in another massive explosion.

"Lead, Nine, targets secure" O'Neill signaled as he pulled into a long curve back around and towards B5, nothing with appreciation the other six light cruisers either burning or doing a very good impression of an expanding debris field.

"Nine this is Seven, lead is gone. We've also lost Three, Four and Five".

Jack felt a ball of led push into his stomach. The squadron commander AND XO both gone?

"Seven what the hell happened?"

"We had the damn Raiders beat, only a half dozen of the things left" Seven said in disgust. "One flight was re-engaging and they all just turned and accelerated right for them and bloody blew themselves up! Just like that, took out three of Delta Flight, one of foxtrot and scared the bejesus out of me".

"Did they punch out?" Jack demanded. The F-302's were equipped with ejecting cockpit modules sealed against space and there was a chance that-

"Not a chance sir, they were ripped to pieces by the blasts".

"Copy that" Jack replied, forcing away the anger he felt at the loss of eight good men far away from home. But true to form as now he was in command, he forced all feeling aside until later

"All Snakes, reform on Snake Seven and fall back to point Zulu, we've done what we need to. Flicking back to the White Stars channel, he triggered his radio again. "White Star eighteen, what's your status?"

"Not too good Snake Nine" a static filled voice came back. "We chased off the Raiders but both of our ships took a lot of damage. The auto repair systems are engaged, but we'll be out of the fight for at least half an hour".

"Can you make it back to B5?"

"Affirmative, but I doubt we'll move from there for some time".

"Copy, we'll escort you in. Break. All Snakes form up on the White Stars. Busters, return to screening positions".

Barely listening to the acknowledgements, Jack cut back his throttle to a less insane speed as he steered towards the two gunboats.

"Sir, Prometheus is in trouble" Carter suddenly spoke up, snapping O'Neills eyes back open. Pulling his mask back to his face, Jack toggled his microphone.

"All Foxtrots" he ordered, using the brevity code for the F-302's, "stand by for possible mission change". Turning towards the massive battle raging hundreds of Kilometers away, he flicked his communications systems back to his intercom.

"What's the problem?"

The 'problem' was the steadily draining shield system on Prometheus. It wasn't a problem of power due to the Drakhs bombardment; it was two, five hundred dollar bracings used to connect the power supply to the generator that hadn't been properly tightened, letting the proverbial 'plug' pull lose during battle.

With those generators offline, the shield bubble simply couldn't be maintained and was steadily falling apart, despite the best efforts of the remaining generators.

Pendergast vowed silently that he would kill whichever yard dog was responsible for forgetting to correctly tighten a half dozen damn bolts on his ship. Assuming they survived the next three minutes.

"We don't have time for subtlety now" Pendergast declared, standing up and moving to between Gant and Delouse. "Major, roll us ninety degrees to starboard. Target railguns and interceptors on every Raider around the Lexington and Atlas, VLS tubes on the cruisers and hit them with everything you have"

Her shields still rallying against the Drakh firepower, Prometheus rolled, bringing the line of Drakh escorts englobing the Omegas into her forward and upper arcs while placing the heavy cruisers and her strongest shields under her.

The Omegas were mostly impotent now, huddled side by side with only a third of their weapons operational and three quarters of their fighters gone. Not enough to discourage an attack, but the Drakh were taking great pleasure in the payback they were dishing out. The countless wrecks of Raiders and a handful of light cruisers were a testament to just how costly their holding action had been for the Drakh. And the Drakh were keen to make them suffer all the more for it.

Then the formations of Raiders started to explode and shatter as torrents of blue interceptor bolts and stuttering golden streams of railgun slugs slammed into them from Prometheus as she sprinted past in a blur, a salvo of missiles streaking from her VLS cells into the pack of cruisers, not enough for kills but pounding them heavily enough to force them to back off and give Leftcourt enough breathing room to blast an escape route towards Babylon 5's defense grid. Captain Lochley committed Alpha wing to go and help them blast into cover of B5's big guns and Pendergast wished for nothing more then to turn back and cover their withdrawal, but they had bigger problems to deal with. And as they shot past the front lines of the Drakh ships, he decided to play his last card.

He just hoped it wasn't the joker.

"Major Gant, charge the main cannon".

Gant traded a look with Delouse at that order, but was far too professional to say anything out loud, typing the activation sequence on her keyboard.

"Aye, diverting power to main cannon, initializing pre-fire sequence".

A sound like a jet engine slowly powering up started to be heard through the ships hull, a deep thunder as incredible forces were diverted into the completely untested weapons system, power indicators in engineering moving as a great deal of the ships reserve power was diverted through newly installed and untested conduits. For a wonder, they were holding up to the flow without problems, Pendergast just begged the universe to let them hold out long enough.

"Main cannon is at fifty percent charge, ready to fire in ten seconds" Delouse announced.

"Shields approaching critical, collapse imminent" Gant warned as the Drakh, sensing the weakness in their enemy concentrated their firepower on Prometheus with almost blinding intensity.

"Bring us around to firing position, hit them the SECOND you have a green light then get us the hell out of here" Pendergast ordered, trying to hurry the slowly moving status bar on Gants display through shear will power as it just about reached one hundred percent-

"Shields collapsing" Gant shouted as the energy bubble started to fracture-

"Fire in the hole!" Delouse barked as the cannon activated, sounding for all the world like a gigantic staff weapon powering up.

As the first Drakh beams punched through the collapsing shield barrier, too weak to do more then scratch the hull, the massive bronze muzzle at the bow of the ship starting to glow a brilliant white, its luminosity continually redoubling to the point that looking at the glare was painful until finally with a recoil that shoved Prometheus back a hundred meters, a golden bolt exploded down the length of the weapon, passed through the white glare and the combined energy screamed towards the lead Drakh cruiser.

The Hybrid Pulse Plasma Cannon (or REALLY REALLY Big Honking Space Gun as General O'Neill had named it) was a slapped together prototype derived from backwards engineered Goa'uld and EA weapons technology. A relatively close facsimile of a Ha'Tak's main cannon was powered then discharged down the massive barrel. Passing through a series of magnetic fields in the one hundredth of a second the energy took to reach the business end of the weapon, the energy bolt was layered like cotton candy by a compressed EA plasma pulse and yet another containment field, then flung into space, the ships inertial dampeners straining to deal with the enormous recoil generated.

The Goa'uld based weapons pulse was concentrated in the front fifth of the energy blast. Compact and focused to as great a density as physics permitted, it was like shooting a sabot round into a light armored vehicle, tearing through the lead Drakh cruiser on a narrow front and blasting right out the other side without slowing down. As the pulse passed through the ship, bashing and vaporizing its way through bulkheads and walls, the magnetic field holding the EA plasma component around it degraded rapidly, finally collapsing a third of the way into the ship.

It was the next best thing to setting off a fusion bomb. The plasma, released from its magnetic prison forced its way through the ships internals. Even as the Goa'uld component of the pulse blasted out of the cruisers stern, the ship shuddered violently and seconds later a rolling wave of plasma and debris blasted from every window, docking port and airlock on the forward half of the cruiser, the wreck slowly drifting into an uncontrolled left hand turn as the now uncontrolled engines misfired.

The Goa'uld based initial energy pulse meanwhile found a new target, crashing into the starboard flank of the next Drakh cruiser in line and tearing a trench down the right flank of the hapless warship, opening countless compartments to space, staggering it but not stopping it.

Even as Prometheus laid waste to the lead Drakh cruiser, the remaining four cruisers fired one more salvo, punching through the weakening shields as Major Gant broke hard to starboard.

Pendergast held on for dear life as Prometheus heaved under him. Without him needing to say anything, Major Gant was already yanking the ships bow around, letting the beams rake along the ships heavily armored flank before punching the engines to full power blasting back towards B5 and away from the Drakh ships, which ceased fire as they regrouped for their final thrust.

"Damage Report!" Pendergast demanded as the ship stabilized.

"Forward missiles tubes destroyed. Heavy armor damage to the starboard beam. VLS tubes damaged, extent unknown. We have hull breaches forward of frame six".

"Seal those sections off and get a damage control team up there. Jackson, what's the status on the rest of the battle?"

Daniel who had taken over the ships sensor station was thankful for the cross-training he had received on the 303's systems during his single aborted trip to Atlantis with General Hammond.

"The Snakes are down a third and have expended most of their ordinance. The Busters are still at one hundred percent, both squadrons are now holding at the final defense line. The two Omegas look pretty shot up, they're falling back towards B5 as well, ditto the two White Stars sitting there".

"What about the Drakh?" the Colonel asked as Prometheus started to decelerate from her sprint in front of the huge blue space station.

"They're regrouping the last of their ships into a single formation".

"And they'll probably roll right over us" Pendergast sighed. All five defending ships were beaten up and in no shape to take on even the reduced Drakh fleet. "Why don't they just blast B5 from here and be done with it?" Delouse wondered out loud. "They're well within weapons range of the station, I can't imagine it would take more then one salvo would tear it apart".

Pendergast frowned. It was actually a rather good point. He could understand them ignoring the station until they had dealt with its defenders but as they had finished beating them back, albeit at great cost…why weren't they attacking?

"Symbols" Daniel suddenly spoke up, his expression thoughtful.

"I'm sorry Doctor Jackson?" Pendergast asked in confusion as his crew strove to try and affect damage control and get as much repaired as fast a possible.

"Sorry, it's just something that comes with being an Anthropologist" Jackson commented as he turned around. "You keep analyzing everything to see if it points to something else. This whole attack, it's all symbolic".

"Rather lethally symbolic" Pendergast pointed out, trusting the mans opinion but not seeing where he was going.

"Yes but that's effect rather then cause. Look at the Drakh. When they attacked Earth, they did so to make a point. They used a Shadow planet killer, then they used a Shadow plague and they did it on the 5th anniversary of the Interstellar Alliance. Here they are attacking the station that was the base of the army that vanquished their masters, which is being used to sign a treaty to vanquish them".

Pendergast frowned slightly in thought.

"Okay, so they like to make a big splash. Why aren't they attacking?"

"Because they want to make a statement. About how helpless everyone is before them now. We've given them a hell of a bloody nose in front of their audience, they want to pointedly slaughter us in response and then slowly dismember Babylon Five so that memory replaces that of their losses they suffered doing it. I mean they took horrendous casualties in the battle at Earth, but no-one remembers that do they?"

"What Audience?" Pendergast asked in confusion.

Daniel just pointed out and up. Following his gaze, the logic suddenly clicked into place. Orbiting above the battlefield were several dozen civilian ships from all the races in the Galaxy, who would carry the tail of horror back to their homeworld as a quarter of a million people were slaughtered in what had once been the fortress that had stood against the Shadows, in the symbol of the unity that the ISA had forged.

So how did they turn that against them? His mind was working in small circles when Gant broke into his thoughts.

"Sir, Signal from the Lexington". He nodded in response and sat up straighter in his chair.

00000000000

Leftcourt helped the last of his men up from the smoke filled command centre; a medic nodding in thanks as he helped manhandle the young officer onto a stretcher. Relief officers had arrived and had put the fires out, but with half of the bridge consoles destroyed, his ability to command the battle was rather compromised.

"Approaching the Zulu Line General" his helmsmen commented, steering with one hand while holding a bandage to his forehead with another.

"All stop, turn us-" Leftcourt broke off into a fit of coughing, swiping smoke away from him "-turn us to present all functioning weapons on the enemy. And get the life support running again! Status on the Atlas and Prometheus?"

"Atlas has been shot up as bad as we have but her engines are in decent shape. And I don't have the first clue about what signifies good and bad for the Prometheus Sir" the sensor officer pointed out. Leftcourt grunted.

"Get me Pendergast". The technician worked his console and a few seconds later, static hissed through his headset.

"Prometheus this is Lexington, what's your status?"

"We've taken some heavy hits General. The damn yard dogs didn't bolt on our shield generators properly and we lost shields a few minutes ago. All nukes expended and the main cannon is unlikely to fire again".

Closing his eyes and sighing in defeat, Leftcourt knew the game was up. He had fought the good fight and lost, all that was left was taking as many of the Drakh to hell with them as they could.

"Is your hyperdrive still online Colonel?" Leftcourt asked as he eased back into his command chair. For a wonder, the ventilator fans were coming back on line and removing the smoke from the command centre, at least he wouldn't CHOKE to death.

"It's online, but if your suggesting that we-"

"Get your people back on board and jump out".

"General with all due-"

"Save the heroics for another day Colonel. The Drakh want this treaty to fail and ten billion people back home to die because of it. If you get away with the diplomats, we still win. We pay a price, they do too, but we still win. Leftcourt out".

Pendergast pressed his lips together. As much as he hated to admit it, the General did have a valid point. The treaty was bigger then any of them and without heavy weapons, there wasn't anything he could do…short of playing Kamikaze anyway.

Was this the only way to win and turn the Drakhs tactics against them?

Sighing, he leaned back in his chair.

"Get me Snake Nine".

"You're on".

"General, did you copy that conversation?"

"Affirmative. Load up everyone onto the Prometheus and hyper back to Earth. I'll stay behind with any 302's who want to stay and-"

"You're part of the Ambassadorial party as well General" Pendergast cut him off. Get your ship back to the Prometheus. As for everyone else…Snakes and Busters, you can stay in the fight for now IF your ship is still good to go. We'll jump out to Epsilon Four and hide in the sensor shadow, you should be able to outrun the Drakh if things get too hot, but don't-"

"Sir, I'm detecting a jump point precursor" Gant suddenly. Vector two two one mark fourteen"

"Dammit, they were waiting to bring in reinforcements" Pendergast sighed in frustration. Even the hope of victory appeared gone now. "Alright EVERYONE get back on Prometheus, Major set a course for-"

"Sir…" Gant started as the computer processed the hyper detailed data from the ships Asgard sensors and alerted her to a peculiar fact. "The jump point signature…"

"Yes"? Pendergast asked…

"Sir Jump point forming in the middle of the Drakh fleet"

Leftcourt cursed softly at the announcement. Every second the Drakh had delayed their attack to reform brought the Foxfire group closer. But it looked like the Drakh reinforcements were closer still.

"Alright this is it, get ready to…" the order died on his lips as a furious salvo of Neutron cannon fire streamed out of the jump point, blasting with deadly results into the side of one of the heavy cruisers and exploiting the damage Prometheus's main cannon had done to its flank. The green-golden beams damn near tore it in half with the shear weight of fire as the jump point itself shredded a dozen Raiders too close to the vortex. A massive Tri-Wing ship followed the weapons fire out of the jump point, turning with surprising maneuverability to line up the next ship with its massive array of guns, frantic return fire from a handful of Raiders doing little but scorching its dull grey hull.

"Well I'll be damned, it's the Victory!"

"Helm; come Starboard twenty five degrees. Weapons control fire!" Captain Anderson barked as the Victory bullied through the rapidly spreading debris from their first victim. He was proud of the way his crew was working, not a move wasted, not a hesitation to his orders. As the old saying went they moved like a well oiled machine.

Of course he demanded nothing less of his crew then perfection. Since the day they had been 'chosen' by that Technomage and been thrown into events that had culminated with the attack on Earth and its infection by the Drakhs contingency weapon, he had pushed his crew harder then they had ever been pushed before. Anderson and most of his crew had expected, at best, to be transferred to backwater postings where their carriers would dead end.

After all they had gone AWOL, stolen two classified prototype ships and gotten them banged up something fierce.

Instead, they had been made into Heroes with a capital H, along with President Sheridan (who until that day had still been somewhat distrusted by some people on Earth, but after going to such lengths to fight for his homeworld now had very few critics remaining) partially because they had earned it…and partially because Earth Force wanted to distract people from the Daedalus and her role in the battle.

Because of his skill in the battle and his otherwise impeccable service record, he and his crew had permanently been assigned to the Victory. The warship had been modified into the half mobile research laboratory half warship design like her younger sister ship, traveling across the Galaxy on leads from the Rangers and trying to find a cure to the plague. It had been pure chance that they had been passing close to the Episilon system when they had overheard the distress call from General Leftcourt. Anderson had decided to withhold a response; the Drakh had shown an uncanny ability to intercept even secure transmissions. And his strategy appeared to have worked, surprise was total as he jumped out into the middle of the Drakh fleet.

"Firing forward weapons aye!" his weapons officer acknowledged, depressing his triggers. Again his ships forward guns raked along the flanks of the next enemy ship in line like claws into flesh, laying the ships flanks open to space. The remaining three Heavy cruisers started to turn, but the Victory was already moving far too fast, turning to starboard and finishing off the second Drakh cruiser with her broadside turrets before bringing the aft weapons to bear on the third cruiser.

"Target two destroyed, target three is attempting to power its jump engines".

The Drakh Lord closed his eyes and ordered all ships to abandon the attack. All hyperspace capable ships were signaled to exit the vicinity and begin evasion routines through hyperspace. When they were completely sure no-one was following them several days into the future, they would make their way home.

He looked at the system display relayed from his ships as the remaining heavy ships started to back away, dueling with the Victory as another of their number held open a jump point that the remaining Raiders fled through. Nodding at his ships helmsmen, he let a slight smile grace his boney face.

Always have a contingency plan…

"They're retreating!" Gant shouted in delight as the Drakh ships broke their formation. Jump points opened as the lighter elements abandoned the field, screened by their remaining heavy ships for the safety of hyperspace. Cheering and applause started to break out on the ships and station behind them, the Victory backed off as the Drakh cruisers unleashed their firepower at her, blasting armor plates off the ship, but doing little to damage her combat capability. Andersons return fire cut deep into one of the cruisers, but not deep enough to stop it as it opened its own Jump Point to escape.

"Major Delouse, stand down the weapons and get me damage reports on-"

"New jump point precursor, high on the Z axis near the civilian ships holding orbit!"

"Send a signal to the fleet!" Pendergast snapped, kicking himself for thinking the Drakh would give up that easily. "Then send to the civilians on all frequencies for them to get the hell out of there-"

"Jump point opening" Gant said with astonishment in her voice. "It's massive!

"On screen" Pendergast ordered. The main screen switched from the Victory slugging it out to a massive vortex that punched into space near the helpless civilian ships.

"Jesus H Christ look at the size of that thing" Delouse breathed. Pendergast was about to tell his officer to watch his boards and not the screen, but the words died on his lips as a massive Drakh Mothership exited hyperspace behind the civilian ships. Like a spider hovering over a collection of helpless insects, Pendergast knew the ships were dead.

But even as the thought came through his mind, a second came on the tail of it. The civilian ships held no real value, killing them would just enrage dozens of races. In fact the only thing the Mothership gained by jumping where it did…was a shot lived shield to prevent anyone firing at it.

"If they're not the target…" he asked softly, too low for his crew to hear him. "What is?"

The answer to Lionel Pendergast's question was revealed as a series of hull plates were blown clear of the massive Motherships rounded nose, revealing a half dozen missile silos. Inside each, the pointed black tip of a missile that belonged to a Shadow Planet Killer poked into space. Six missiles were hardly enough to destroy a planet, but Epsilon Three was anything but a normal planet. At its heart was a massive reactor complex which powered the planetary sized facility. Almost unimaginable amounts of power surged through the kilometers wide power conduits, requiring constant and careful regulation from the caretaker of the facility.

When Drall had taken over managing the planet from the former caretaker, the reactor had been on the verge of destroying itself thanks to the lack of oversight from the dying being, Drall had barely reversed it in time. The effect of its reactor complex letting go on anything near the planet could probably be best described as Susan Ivanova had described it to Londo Mollari.

"Boom. Boom boom boom. Boom boom. BOOM! Have a nice day."

With an almost affectionate stroke of his firing control by the Drakh Lord, the missiles were released and streaked for Epsilon Three, the thunder of the Drakh Motherships jump drives increasing as a new jump point opened for his ship to escape through.

Farewell Babylon Five. And good riddance.

"Captian the Drakh Mothership just launched three, no, six missiles towards Epsilon Three" Corwin shouted in a horrified voice. On his screens the Victory had pitched to bring her Main Guns to bear, but she simply couldn't risk firing with so many civilian ships in the way.

"Calm down Commander and get me the Prometheus" Lochley said, striving not to show the same horror Corwin did, despite feeling it. They had started to celebrate the Drakhs retreat then the Drakh had pulled another damn contingency plan out of nowhere. If they didn't stop those missiles-

"The Drakh ship just launched six objects towards Epsilon Three General" Carter announced as their fighter hurtled towards the Drakh mothership. "And they've just opened another jump point, they're leaving".

Without comment, O'Neill altered his course towards the six new blips on his sensor display, picking the fast moving objects from the still scattering cloud of civilian ships. He had ascended straight for the civilians when Carter had detected the Jump Point starting to form, the rest of the 302's were only now starting to accelerate after them. With only two missiles left he doubted he could really do much to a ship that made Anubis's comand ships look small, but with luck he could put one hell of an expensive dent in it…

"Prometheus this is Snake Nine, any idea what was just fired at Epsilon Three?"

"We're working on it" Pendergast replied, "hang on….oh hell, they match the sensor profile of missiles from a Shadow Planet Killer".

"But that thing needed thousands of missiles to kill a planet" Jack O'Neill protested as he willed his craft to go faster. He wasn't flying straight up at the missiles, as given their forward acceleration he would end up flying in an arc behind them, loosing valuable time. Instead he was flying to an intercept point where they should be in about twenty seconds, assuming of course they didn't accelerate faster then they were.

"They probably don't need thousands of missiles to kill this planet" Carter replied. "If there is some kind of installation down on the planet and that's what they actually want to destroy."

"Actually Colonel, its worse then that" a new voice Carter recognized as Captain Lochley broke into channel, probably via the Prometheus. "If those missiles set off Epsilon Three, nothing in orbit twenty seconds later will be alive".

"Nuts" O'Neill breathed into his mask. "Alright, we'll take care of it. Out. Carter?"

"Sir?" she replied.

"How close are those missiles grouped together?" Jack asked as he started to decelerate, it wouldn't do him any good if they overshot the targets after all.

"It's a staggered spread, roughly grouped into two groups of three about five hundred meters apart".

"Alright, target one missile on each group".

Carter worked her controls. "Done, we have twenty seconds before they hit the atmosphere".

"No pressure" Jack muttered to himself, pulling his craft into a wicked hundred G turn as he moved onto a parallel course with the warheads, the massive brown ball of Episilon 3 growing alarmingly large alarmingly fast as he closed to firing range. Holding off as long as he dared for the best shot, he finally dropped his nose at the lead target, squeezed the trigger then dove slightly and fired again.

"Fox four Fox four!" Jack announced as the two missiles smoothly slid off their rails, arcing out towards their target on long streams of exhaust. A handful of seconds later, a pair of detonations that would have blinded Jack if not for the visor he had pulled down on his helmet, flashed and he lifted the visor, expecting to see nothing but debris.

"Crap, one of the missiles didn't die" Jack announced.

Carter glanced down at her radar. True enough, one of the six missiles had survived the thermonuclear firepower and hit the atmosphere, flames licking at it as the atmospheric friction superheated the air in its path. A second later, their 302 hit it in pursuit, shuddering despite the best efforts of the inertial dampeners. With its forward swept wings and trinium/titanium space frame, the 302 could take incredible stress at hypersonic speeds, but crashing into the atmosphere was pushing it to the limit. The wings edges started to glow red and O'Neill silently prayed for his ship to hold together as he fired bolt after bolt into the missile from his cannons.

"It's no good Sir" Carter yelled as she studied the effects. "The ionization around the missile is dissipating the plasma…but I do have a crazy idea".

"Well it's about time" Jack shouted over the roar of the friction.

"You'll need to get us within ten meters of the missile before we hit the stratosphere" she replied, hammering at her controls without looking up. Jack eased the ship forward and to the side, trying to slide directly over the front of the massive warhead despite the horrible buffeting it was producing around it.

"So what's the plan?" Jack shouted.

"If we can get close enough, I can program the Hyperdrive to open a window that we can use to ride the missile through the planet and out the other side".

"Like that asteroid through Earth?"

"Exactly, but the hyperdrive is untested, I don't know if-"

"Just do it!" Jack replied, his hand starting to turn to jelly as his flight stick tried to tear itself out of his hand from the effort of sitting next in the missiles slipstream.

"Activating hyperspace window generator" Carter shouted, a new high pitched whine forcing itself into the cockpit. In the flames outside his cockpit, Jack had a brief glimpse of a purple distortion then with a blur of motion the flaming atmosphere vanished to be replaced by the brilliant tunnel of hyperspace.

"Reactor is spiking, I don't know how much longer it can keep this up!" Carter warned with a note of urgency in her voice. Naquadriah's awesome power curve was only matched by its instability. The EA technologies added to the design did little more then build a more advanced buffering system, but she was pushing it way beyond its design limits in moving a missile this size through Hyperspace. The master alarm went off in their cockpit as the energy buildup approached the red line-

-And with a jolt, the blue tunnel of hyperspace flashed and was replaced by a star field on the dark side of Epsilon Three. On Carters board, the buffer read out flashed red one last time and then faded away back to a safe blue as the Hyperdrive powered down.

Jack let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding as he turned his craft away from the missile, which was still happily speeding off into space. Frowning as he stared at it over his shoulder, he triggered the intercom.

"So what do we do about-"

A lance of red energy punched up from the surface of Epsilon Three, slamming into the rear of the Shadow missile and blowing out the other side without slowing down, the missile detonated milliseconds later and leaving nothing but vapor.

"-the missile" Jack finished with a feeling of great respect for the weapons array of Epsilon Three. A new voice came over their communications systems, one Jack recognized.

"Colonel, General, as you humans are so fond of saying, I believe I owe you one" Drall commented. "I would invite you two and Doctor Jackson down whenever is convenient, we have much to talk about" and before Jack could reply, the channel closed.

Pulling off his oxygen mask and letting it dangle by its strap, Jack closed his eyes for a full five seconds before banking into a gentle turn that brought him into an orbit that would take them back to Babylon Five.

"Carter?"

"Yes sir?"

"The next time General Hammond sends me on a diplomatic mission….shoot me".

"I'll keep that in mind Sir" she smirked with a shake of her head, their somewhat charred F-302 accelerating into the sunrise on Epsilon Three's horizon.


	20. Chapter 9 Foundations

Deep Space, near Jericho system  
Earth Alliance Space.

The EAS Nimrod was not a new ship, indeed she was past her fifteenth year and in urgent need of a good refit and general check over. Her engines burnt too much fuel, her long range sensors were slightly out of alignment and she had just one of her potential three squadrons of fighters embarked. Despite that she was still deployed on active duty, and compared to some of the ships Earth Force had been forced to deploy the Nimrod was virtually perfect.  
She was an Omega class destroyer and one of the first models, yet she had been considered obsolete before she had even left the docks. The design had been commissioned with all the lessons learned during the Dilgar war to give Earth a new long ranged warship capable of fighting and patrolling far beyond humanities borders. It's technology was an evolution rather than a revolution sharing many basic components with the successful Nova class Dreadnoughts along with some of the technology taken from wrecked Dilgar ships and less well known also the wrecks of some abandoned League ships. It resulted in a very basic inertial compensator system which improved the ships ability to turn and crucially allowed to support a rotating section without snapping in two whenever it tried to turn around. It was the first step Earth had towards developing pure Artificial gravity but sadly the design wasn't ready for the next war.  
The Minbari had shown the Omega was outclassed in every way. The few prototypes died as quickly as their elder brethren and when by some chance the Minbari just stopped and went home Earth knew it needed something even bigger and better than the once impressive Omega. Ultimately that design had turned into the Warlock but it wouldn't be ready for decades and until then Earth needed a new ship to replace war losses. The Omega was ready to go and while no match for a Minbari ship it would be tough enough to take on almost any other vessel. SO the programme was authorised and two years later the Nimrod was launched.  
They looked impressive, but Earth Force knew they were inadequate, the Minbari knew it, the Drakh knew it, and Angela knew it.

Captain Angela Songster had been in command of this ship for just four months, hardly enough time to truly familiarise herself with the ship and its crew. She had only just been given command of an ancient Hyperion tasked with patrol hear Io which was a nice safe first command assignment, but then the Drakh struck and as an officer with command experience, no matter how brief, she had been given a Destroyer to replace the Nimrod's prior Captain who had taken on a brand new Warlock.  
It was a common situation across the fleet as experienced crews were unceremoniously pulled from their ships and handed the newer types of vessel now churning out of the Proxima and Io fleet yards. It meant the Warlocks and Tritons and the host of modern designs had the best crews, but it meant the Omega and Nova fleets were full of fairly new officers and crew and the Hyperion fleets had virtually ceased to exist as their crews were sent to Destroyers and not replaced.  
Most of Earths best ships were deployed rimward hunting for the Drakh forces which seemed to be concentrated out in former Shadow territory, however as a nomadic race with no true planetary base the Drakh always seemed to be one step ahead of the Rangers and the battlefleets following on. However despite the dire situation Earth still had to protect it's borders and colonies and that job had fallen to the less experienced crews, now often operating bigger ships than you'd expect on a patrol route. It was hoped that a Raiding force that saw something like an Omega when they had expected a Frigate might be inclined just to run away and not try their luck, which considering how under manned and raw the Destroyers on patrol tended to me might have paid off big for them. Songsters deployment to the Minbari border should have been quiet, even the hardiest Raiders tried to avoid getting sandwiched between those two governments and tended to work from the League or sometimes Centauri border.

Lately however there had been some activity towards Minbari space, a number of freighters had just vanished into vacuum, and even a Hyperion sent to investigate had failed to return so Earth Force had ordered in the Nimrod despite its less than first rate condition. They had been on station for six days when the distress signal came in and the Destroyer jumped to Hyperspace in order to intercept the attackers.  
The signal had been jammed at the source before any details had been forthcoming, but based on the shipping schedules and registered flight plans Captain Songster had garnered a rough location for the convoy, a Belt Alliance mining ship and two bulk ore haulers. Pretty big targets for Raiders.  
Lieutenant Commander Misuki snapped a quick salute as he skidded to a stop before the Captain's chair. "Ma'am, Starfury wing is ready for launch."  
Songster nodded, by wing he meant squadron. "Thank you Commander, and you don't need to salute inside the ship."  
"Yes Captain." Misuki turned bright red. "Sorry Captain."  
"Don't worry about it." She smiled back, Misuki and his comrades were frighteningly young and were still supposed to be in their training period. After graduating the academy future officers usually served on a sort of training fleet safe in one of the core worlds of the Alliance where they learned the fine art of Starship operations over a full year. Like much protocol that idea had been discarded with the Drakh attack and the trainees were now fully commissioned fleet officers. Misuki had about five months experience, Songster herself had only been in service for four years, ever since Clark had gone and Earth Force began to look more like defenders and not oppressors.

"Coming up on coordinates." The helm officer said. "I am not reading a nearby Jump gate."  
"Understood, prepare the jump engines, we'll do this the expensive way." Songster ordered. She showed no sign, but inside found it unusual. Most pirate attacks happened near a gate because Raiders very rarely could count on Jump capable vessels, to escape they had to dart through the gate before the authorities showed up. If the attack was happeneing in deep space it meant the Raiders probably had at least one very expensive jump engine in their fleet. That meant organisation and resources, this could turn into a fight for the Destroyer so she made sure the crew was ready for it.  
"Sound General Quarters." She ordered. "Rig for battle stations, all batteries go to ready status and that includes those lazy fools in the aft weapons control room!"  
"Aye Captain." Misuki said formally, he was young but at least he'd memorised the drill book and proceeded to relay her orders expertly.  
"Stand by to return to normal space." She said, eyes dancing back and forth over the tactical displays. "Jump."  
The transition went largely unnoticed as the dimensions altered from tumultuous red to empty lightless black, the vortex shrinking away back into the fabric of space behind the unlovely ship. As soon as it was clear of the interference the Nimrod began a full sweep of the area on sensors, and it was not long before they stumbled across the convoy.

"Got them, reading massive jamming in the vicinity." Misuki informed. "They are moving at high speed towards the gate, they seem to be firing but I am registering no return fire."  
"Odd." Songster mused. "They are firing on the enemy, they are being chased and getting closer to the gate, you have gone to the trouble of jamming them. Why not just destroy them?"  
"Maybe they want hostages Ma'am?" Misuki suggested. "Ransoms are worth almost as much as cargo."  
"Perhaps." Songster said. "Or perhaps they are bait, kept alive to draw us in."  
"Why?" the Commander frowned. "There's no Raider fleet in the galaxy that can take a Destroyer, it doesn't make sense."  
"No it doesn't. but we have our orders. We go in carefully, launch fighters and have them cover our flanks, we don't have the right numbers or types for a strike so we'll keep them for point defence."  
"Aye Captain."  
"Engines to full, take us in. Forward batteries prepare to fire."

The hangar doors ground open and released the twelve fighters, base model Starfuries rather than the more modern Thunderbolts the ship had previously carried. Like much else those squadrons had been transferred to more deserving units. Right now Songster didn't think anyone deserved to use her fighters but her crew alone, not that it was going to make much difference now. The old Aurora's were the SA 23-E type superiority fighters, they weren't even the newer SA 23-G models that had provision for under wing missiles which meant they could not be used in an anti shipping role. Songster ordered them to spread out and catch any surprise attacks from fighters or mines coming in from either flank.  
"Fighters in position." The report came. "We are picking up something, unsubstantiated readings behind the convoy that seems to be the source of the jamming. There is definitely something there."  
"How does it compare to examples of Minbari stealth?"  
It was the obvious question everybody was thinking but nobody asked. They were on the Minbari border and the possibility of running into a Warcruiser was one that haunted their minds. Whatever the current political situation there were a lot of people ready to blame the Minbari for lost human ships.  
"There seem to be differences, this jamming is far greater." Misuki said. "Even with a Minbari ship we would know roughly where it was even if we couldn't target it. This time I just can't read anything."  
That answered one question in her mind, but Captain Songster still had an unknown threat to deal with.  
"Time to visual range?"  
"Twenty seconds."  
"Any response to our presence?"  
"No Ma'am."  
"Gun crews, go to visual targeting." At least one outcome of the Minbari war was that Earth had the best optics among the younger races and an advanced visual recognition and target course prediction computer. "Fire on my mark."

The Destroyer passed the edge of the jamming field, it's sensor accuracy suddenly increasing as it crossed the threshold. The convoy redoubled its efforts as soon as they spotted the friendly warship and tried to get out of the firing line.  
"Increase scan range." Songster ordered. "Get me something to shoot at."  
"Got something!" Misuki replied. "A ship, capital class, almost exactly ahead. Picking up a visual."  
Songster took a look at the picture coming in, it certainly wasn't what she expected. "Well, that's new."  
"It's locking weapons on us, the convoy and our fighters." Misuki warned. "Energy spike."  
"I won't wait for them to fire, all batteries engage. If you can't get a lock watch your fire and adjust by sight."  
"Guns reporting." Misuki nodded, and moments later the ship grumbled slightly as the weapons drew power through the main plasma conduits leading to the reactor.  
"Very well. Emergency power to the engines and deploy the sensor log buoy." Songster ordered. Against this threat with the technology and power levels they had seen the Nimrod wa slittle more than a distraction, she doubted the weapons would even sting their opponent. But she had her orders, and there was a convoy under attack which required action to be taken. Even knowing the odds there was no way they'd try and run even if they could. "Ramming speed."

The Nimrod met a swift end, cut down in a mere five seconds, the convoy soon after before the enemy ship departed. But the jubilation at bringing down a Destroyer clouded their reasoning, they did not fully account for all the units in the area and hidden behind the wreckage waited a single Starfury. It kept a low profile until the hostile vanished, and then slowly emerged and grappled the Destroyers sensor log. Then, with a final numb glance at the debris field that had once been home, the pilot turned away and sped for the Jump Gate several hours away.

Prometheus, Epsilon System  
EA Space.

Colonel Pendegast took a long moment to stare out of the bridge windows of his ship as EVA teams skipped and skirted across the hull finishing off the last touches to the repairs. The damage had put his ship in a difficult position facing the Drakh, but it was happily easy to repair and after three days the Prometheus was not only fighting fit but the original upgrades to the weapons were also complete and safely tested. The rather hasty battle field trial of the new generation hybrid cannons had proven the concept, now it was just a case of making it work properly.  
Beyond the window he saw the traffic returning to its busy self, scores of ships from scores of worlds darting back and forth waiting for docking clearance with the station quietly spinning below. Wreckage from the Drakh ships had mostly been cleared with samples sent to Earth Force and ISA research divisions and several tons stored in the Prometheus' hold for study later. The Asgard would probably be mildly interested, and no doubt Colonel Carter would be looking forward to getting home and back in her laboratory.  
The damaged EA Destroyers had been towed away heading for the Orion fleet yards for repairs and their place had been taken by a somewhat larger force headed by the Warlock class EAS Foxfire and her escorts. General Lefcourt was on board her right now making more plans with the incarcerated General Staff and Joint Chiefs on Earth. For his own part Prendegast was content to allow the technicians to run around his ship under their own supervision, he had spent his time reviewing the battle and comparing it with Colonel Caldwells other reports on the Drakh and his experiences. It made fairly grim reading, and while he was confident in his ships superiority the Drakh sure had numbers on their side.

"You look like a man with a lot on his mind."  
Pendegast saw the reflection of Michael Garibaldi in the window and nodded. From what he knew the heavy set bald man had lead a roller coaster life going from top of the world to rock bottom about a dozen times and collecting an assortment of scars and near mortal wounds in the process. He had finally clawed his way up to the top and for once seemed fairly stable, though the thoughts that drove him often remained a guarded secret.  
"Just thinking about this place." Pendegast answered. "I haven't seen so many ships from so many places before. Quite an eye opener."  
"This place always drew people in from far and wide, good and bad." Garibaldi agreed. "But you saw that yourself with the Drakh. Did I mention how cool that was?"  
"Couple of times." Prendegast smiled. "But I'm sure General O'Neill won't stop you telling him again."  
The sensors registered the Jumpgate powering up again as it seemed to do every fifteen minutes or so lately. This place was certainly very busy, and he had to wonder if in ten or twenty years his own home world might be seeing traffic like this.  
The ship that arrived was something a little different this time and it caught Pendegasts attention. This time it wasn't a cargo ship but a vast alien vessel that began gliding toward the station.

"Are you expecting a Minbari War cruiser?" Pendergast asked.  
"No, no I don't think so." Garibaldi frowned.  
"Colonel Caldwell mentioned them in his report, they're the ships to beat around here aren't they?"  
Garibaldi nodded. "Yeah, they're the benchmark everyone else compares themselves to. The only things that can really top them are the new Victory class. Some say a Warlock or a Centauri Octurion could do the job, but I wouldn't risk it."  
Pendegast remembered that twenty years ago ships like that had almost killed the human race in this particular galaxy. That was bound to create ill feeling and even twenty years later Pendergast could sense the usually relaxed Garibaldi tense slightly as it approached.  
"But you're all on the same side now." The Colonel said.  
"So everyone keeps telling me." Garibaldi shrugged. "One day I might believe it."  
He took a long cigar from his top pocket, something Pendergast found a little strange in this setting and lit up. Normally the Colonel would have thrown a bucket of water over him but considering the company he'd let it go this once.  
"You know I should be glad to see those ships, I mean they've saved our butts plenty of times from President Clark and the Shadows and now the Drakh. They are awesome ships and they're here to protect us." His voice changed tone. "But even though the last dozen times I've seen those ships coming to our rescue, every time one shows up the only thing I remember, the only thing my mind can register is the first time I saw one."  
Pendegast shifted his view from sensors to back out the bridge window as the vessel closed to visual range, a curving blue sculpture which was certainly unique to his eyes, there was nothing like it and while it didn't scream warship like the EA cruiser he noticed everyone gave it a wide berth, even the Foxfire. He tried to decide whether it was elegantly pretty or just plain ugly.  
"You were in the war?"  
Garibaldi nodded. "Ground pounder, so I never had to try and take one of these things like President Sheridan or General Lefcourt, but I saw what they can do."

"It was about a week into the war and I was sat with my Mom and my Dad having dinner, I'd have been a lot younger, with hair and everything. My unit was getting ready to go and do something and I figured I should spend a little time with the folks just in case I didn't get another chance" Garibaldi spoke easily like he and Pendergast were old friends.  
"So we are having dinner, and it was delicious, Dad was a hell of a cook." He smiled wanly. "He didn't cook much, just on special occasions. He was an old soldier himself and he knew we were at war, he must have guessed exactly why I came to see them that day and he wanted to make it special. He didn't say much about his feelings, he just wasn't that kind of guy, but I knew deep down that this was his way of telling me to take care and that he loved me. Mom too."  
"Anyway, we're eating and the news comes on, Dad never liked the TV on when we ate but he had it set up to switch on if ISN mentioned the war. At that time we didn't know anything about the Minbari, certainly not how deep in over our heads we were, so we all stopped and watched the news, they had footage of a battle. Later we learned the reason we hadn't seen a Minbari ship up close before was because only a handful of ships had managed to escape and Earth Force was suppressing the information, but this came from a civilian ship and went straight to ISN."  
Garibaldi took a long breath on the cigar and kept watching the ship. "There were five of our ships on the screen, two Dreadnoughts and three cruisers in a screen ahead of them. They were shooting at something, I couldn't see what but they were giving up hell, every gun at full charge, I mean you should see a Nova when it really lets loose, even a Warlock doesn't look that awesome. Next thing we know, those three cruisers just transform into fire balls, one, two, three. As quick as it takes to say it, they were gone."  
"Now that took the air out of my lungs," Garibaldi wagged the cigar. "A Hyperion back then was a tough ship, it could stand up to just about anything except the biggest Centauri ships. To see three of them get cut down that quick, well I thought they were going up against about fifty ships! Well then it came into view, one cruiser, just like that one." He pointed out of the window. "It was at rock throwing range and those cruisers hadn't hit anything. They still haven't told us how that stealth system works, even though we keep getting told we're on the same side."  
He shrugged. "Then the Nova's headed forward trying to get to point blank range, firing everything they've got. My dad was in the Dilgar war about fifteen years earlier, and he was in the army too but he'd seen these Nova's taking on the Dilgar and he'd told me about it. He was heading in to Balos, full scale planetary assault and there was a whole division in assault shuttles tearing down to that rock. Now the Dilgar saw them coming and they went all out to destroy them, to kill our guys while they were still in the landers before they hit the dirt, and they sent in squadrons of warships to make it happen. Dad's division was being covered on its way in by two Dreadnoughts, Churchill and MacArthur, and when the Dilgar made their move it was just those two ships that stood between the Dilgar navy and the landing crafts."  
Garibaldi managed a wide smile. "Well not one Dilgar ship broke through, and if you read the brief history you'll know these Dilgar were bad customers who knew how to fight. They threw themselves at those two Dreadnoughts and got slaughtered, they must have lost a dozen cruisers to each Dreadnought in less than five minutes. They aren't pretty to look at but those ships and Starfuries won us that war and saved the whole League in the bargain. Good ships and good crews, and there's always rivalry between Army and Navy but since that day my Dad would buy a drink for any Navy man he happened to sit beside in a bar. Like I said, he never said much but his actions spoke for themselves."  
Again he drew on the cigar. "Well the ships on TV were the Churchill and MacArthur. My dad leaps forward and he says 'Watch this Michael, now we'll show them what we're made of.' They went in, and a couple of shots connected as they got closer and you could see the hull on the Minbari ship buckle and crack. For a moment all three of us felt our hopes rise, we were smiling, damn near cheering on those two ships. Then the Minbari ship returned fire, and they both went down one after the other, and that was it. Whatever we were hoping for died as quickly as those ships had, just one Minbari ship had done what a Dilgar fleet had killed itself trying."  
"As you can guess that was a hell of a thing to see for a guy who was about to ship out to fight these people. But whatever was going through my head vanished when I saw my Dad, it's not something I can really describe but those two ships had saved his life at Balos, and then they'd gone on to survive the final battles and achieve some of the best kill tallies in the navy. They were good ships, legends nearly, and they were snuffed out in a second. How do you come to terms with that? I don't think he ever did, he never said anything of course but behind his eyes, something just went out and never came back. I was in my twenties, in the army, I thought I could handle anything but just then I felt like a kid again, because if Dad with all he'd seen and been through couldn't deal with that, what chance did I have?"  
Garibaldi shrugged a final time. "So yeah, I should be glad to see them, but every time one shows up I just see Earth Force ships getting destroyed and I see that little spark going out of my Dad's eyes. Those ships are cold death to me and a lot of other guys I know. People keep telling me to'Forgive and forget' but that just isn't me. I don't believe in either of those ideas Colonel, and when it comes down to it most of the people who fly those damn ships don't believe in it either."

A beep signalled an incoming message.  
"Colonel sir," a technician spoke. "Signal for Mr Garibaldi, his presence is requested on the station by the Vice President."  
"Delenn." The burly man replied. "Guess that explains the cruiser. Maybe they aren't all bad, and maybe if I keep telling myself that maybe one day I really will believe it. But not for a while." He finished the cigar. "I don't suppose you have a tray around here?"  
"I'll put it down the garbage disposal." Prendegast took it. "You should get going, might be important. Your deputy here can handle the last details of the refit."  
"I'm sure." Garibaldi smiled. "But after the last guy I like to keep an eye on them, just in case."  
"Anyone told you you're a really paranoid man?" Pendergast chuckled.  
"thanks." Garibaldi laughed back. "That's the image I was trying for."  
He left the bridge and allowed Colonel Pendergast to resume watching traffic now paying close attention to the stationary blue warship a dozen miles away. He guessed it was similar to fighting beside the Free Jaffa and their Hat'tak class ships which had been weapons of terror for countless millions. Of course the difference was the SGC had always averted trouble before anything really bad had happened, Garibaldi's people hadn't been so lucky and had lived in fear and despair for years as those blue ships had gotten closer and closer. That had to be bad for human society, and it was no wonder radicals had taken over a decade later. In some ways Pendergast envied the people of the Earth Alliance, but not for that. He wouldn't envy anyone who had to face that and he just hoped it never happened to his own home.

Babylon 5

Not long ago General O'Neill had been pining for the days when he and SG 1 had been conducting off world missions and slowly found himself going stir crazy sat in an office missing out on what he enthusiastically called 'All the fun Carter!' He had since had time to throw a little perspective on that, and after facing the Drakh maybe the office wasn't so bad after all. Nah, when O'Neill really thought about a little action now and again was good for the soul.  
"So you actually flew through the planet?" the massive form of Captain Anderson dwarfed Carter who was standing beside him. The three of them had assembled with Security Chief Zack Allan and of course Doctor Jackson to greet the Vice President of the Inter Stellar Alliance, a Minbari named Delenn who was apparently married to John Sheridan whom they had met previously. Of the whole group Daniel Jackson was probably most interested, and at O'Neill's suggestion the representatives finalising the two Earths treaty would not be disturbed until after it was all sealed and signed. He had to admit to a little hidden agenda on that one, mostly revolving around his inability to keep his lunch down if he had to spend more time with Mr Woolsely.  
"Well the nature of our faster than light propulsion system essentially shifts the parent vessel out of our space-time continuum." Even if for some reason he did not know Carters voice, nobody else spoke like that. Anderson seemed to be genuinely interested and even following the conversation, O'Neill just smiled occasionally as they glanced his way.

O'Neill glanced to the other side to see Daniel Jackson completely immersed in a book, a very rustic leather bound tome filled with illegible alien writing in his right hand and an Earth Alliance supplied palm computer in the other which was changing the alien writing into English for him.  
"Good book?" he asked by way of starting conversation.  
"Wha…" Jackson looked up, a look of mild bewilderment on his face as his train of thought hit an O'Neill shaped obstruction. "Oh, yeah. Good book."  
"The latest Harry Potter?" O'Neill wondered. "In fact because we're in the future I could probably look that up now and see how it ends."  
"Well maybe, but there is still an element of randomness in everything." Jackson said. "Plus it's a parallel reality, so not strictly the same thing which means even if you memorized every lottery draw for a year there's no guarantee that when we made it back those exact numbers would come up in that exact sequence."  
"Stop it, I get enough of that from Carter." O'Neill huffed. "Anyway, what's the book about?"  
"It's the, err, Book of G'Kar. Recent history, it mentions the Fall of Narn, the Shadow war, revelations on the universe, pretty big stuff. The guy who wrote it sometimes visits here."  
"Let me guess, he'd be called… G'Kar?" O'Neill hid a smile.  
"Yeah, it's kind of an autobiography, and the Narn Ambassador here said I could take this home as long as I promised not to translate it on paper, just use this thing." He waved the computer. "Some tradition or something."  
"Sounds good." O'Neill glanced back at the doorway leading to the hangar deck. "But I still think I'll try and grab some Harry Potter."

Finally the door hummed open and Captain Lochley strode through still decked out in her dress uniform. Following on was a small party of people, some human and some alien dressed in either white robes or dark and earthy clothes and cloaks. In their midst was a slender woman in a mottled brown and gold robe who despite her tiny frame radiated a calm assuredness which allowed O'Neill to immediately identify her as someone meant to lead. She had the bone crest of her birth race, but the long locks of a human female, something that had been unique in the galaxy, a hybrid of human and alien biology. Since the birth or her son that had now become two individuals with mixed traits.  
"Madam Vice President," Lochley announced in her rough gravely voice, a reminder of her days in the army before graduating the fleet academy, "This is General Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force."  
The Minbari leader steepled her fingers and bowed. She whispered a few words in her own language before standing with a wide smile. "Greetings General, John has spoken a great deal about you and your people." She frowned. "You and somebody called 'Mark Eight', is he here with you?"  
O'Neill and his team shared a smile. "Well, that might need a little explaining. Lets just say they'd get along really well if they ever met." He stepped back and gestured at the other people with him. "Can I introduce Lieutent Colonel Samantha Carter, the smartest person I know, Doctor Daniel Jackson, the smartest person I know, and Captain Anderson, the tallest person I know."  
As he got to the end of the line he noticed another figure stood there. "And a holographic Minbari called Drall who is the loudest person I know."  
The Minbari laughed boisterously at the introduction. "General! You remembered, ahh, I am so pleased you did not forget me, or my invitation."  
"Well, little hard to forget." O'Neill smiled. "Or stop the ringing in my ears for that matter."  
Drall simply laughed even louder at that. "I love the human sense of humour! And Delenn, you are looking bright and radiant, having children is something you should do more often!"  
Most of the group shared an awkward silence at the implication held in that comment, but Delenn seemed deeply amused.  
"You still have a way with words my old friend, in much the same way an army with a battering ram has a way with doors."  
Drall bellowed with laughter. "You were my best student Delenn, and you always had a way of finding the most interesting of people." He regarded the entire group. "Now, why don't the four of you come and see me, I am sure the Captain can wait a couple of hours while we catch up."  
"Well actually the delegates are…"  
"Good!" Drall boomed. "It is settled then, take a ship and head down to my humble home, I will have Zathras make sure the place has all the usual comforts of home. Like air."  
That made O'Neill raise an eyebrow, clearly amusing Drall.  
"Human humour, I love it."

Fifteen minutes later they were on the planet having taken a small Ranger craft to the hidden hangar bay on Epsilon III. The pilot stayed silently with the craft as Delenn led O'Neill, Jackson and Carter through the carved out tunnels towards the heart of the machine.  
"You know your way around this place?" O'Neill asked. "Kinda looks all the same, and no sign posts."  
Delenn nodded with a hint of hesitation, "It has been some years since I last visited but I think it's this way. I am sure if we get too lost Drall will appear to help. After he has stopped laughing of course."  
"He mentioned you were his student?" Jackson piped up from slightly further behind, catching up after examining a section of wall.  
"Yes, many years ago on Minbar, my home." Delenn confirmed. "He taught philosophy, the works of Valen, he taught me to listen to the calling of the heart because it is the only thing that never lies to you."  
"You know I like it here." O'Neill said. "Oh sure you have Drakh, but look at the other races. You got philosophers, poets, historians, artists, and those guys with the weird hair who just seem to drink all day. Beats snake heads and life sucking vampires."  
"You may not have considered that several years ago General." Delenn led them around a corner into more rocky corridors. "Things have gotten less dangerous since then, now we are just dealing with the fate of three species, back then all of us lived in mortal danger from powers we could not comprehend."  
"Yeah, we had that too for a while." O'Neill remarked. "But then we shot them, blew them up, hit them with pointy sticks. That did the trick."  
"We asked our First Ones to leave." Delenn said. "Now why didn't Valen think of that? He seemed so smart. It would have saved us a lot of trouble."  
She turned another corner.  
"So why do the call it 'The Great Machine?'" O'Neill asked.  
She threw a smile over her shoulder and stepped around a final corner and the tunnel ended, replaced instead with a vast cavern stretching into invisibility. Pulses of light and energy ran up and down it's length with a narrow path bridging the chasm.  
"Oh, right." O'Neill answered himself. "Well I can see that."  
Jackson leaned slightly over the edge and looked down. "Got a bit of the 'Forbidden Planet' vibe to it don't you think?"  
"But real." Carter was also examining the facility. "We need to have Prometheus do a full scan on this place, I mean I haven't seen anything like it."  
"Except that movie." O'Neill reminded. "So who built this?"  
"We do not know." Delenn answered. "Some say the first keeper we found was the last of the race who built it, others say the Vorlons did, if anyone truly knows it is Drall, and he has not said." They left the bridge, lingering a little for a last view before continuing back into the dreary corridors. "We are nearly there."

Sure enough after a few moments they entered a new room, the far wall dominated by a transparent panel pulsing with gold light with a roughly human shaped alcove at its centre, a space currently occupied by Drall. O'Neill almost didn't recognise him because he was quiet. It did not last.  
"Welcome to my humble home!" Drall's now familiar voice boomed behind them, the holographic representation striding forward among them. "I trust the journey was agreeable?"  
"Humble home?" O'Neill grinned. "You call this humble?"  
"Ah General, when you have seen the far places I have, when you have dwelt upon the deepest secrets of the universe, when you have walked in the footsteps of giants, then your whole perspective changes. And incidentley, I have." He stepped forward and observed his physical form with a grunt. "I told Zathras to dust me, at least one of them should have gotten the message."  
"Do you mind if I ask what this place does?" Carter raised her question. "Why is it here?"  
"Why?" Drall boomed. "Why? Well, I haven't got a clue." He shrugged. "Who can fathom the mind of a being who may design such a thing. As to what it does, it is a tool of knowledge used both for collection and storage. I can see to the corners of the universe, even through time itself and document all that happens. And as you know, knowledge is power."  
"I'd say that's over rated." O'Neill spoke. "I mean Daniel's got knowledge, but I got a gun so who wins?"  
"Well I'd probably be smart enough to run away." Jackson remarked. "So neither of us."  
"Back on topic," Carter pushed gently. "Why did you ask us down here?"  
"As a precaution so no one could hear what I am about to tell you." Drall lowered his deep voice, which merely brought it down to a normal speaking tone. "When your Colonel Caldwell first arrived something long dormant in this machine also activated, something so ancient it would have been centuries before I worked my way to it. The file contained information on the gate, including it's greatest secret."  
The group leaned closer, hooked on Drall's words.  
"The gate is not from this universe!" The Minbari grinned. "It was brought from your dimension General, made by a race known only as 'The Ancients'" he stood back, greatly pleased at his delivery.  
Jackson and O'Neill shared a look. "Yes." The scientist said. "We sort of figured that out ourselves."  
"You what?"  
"We figured it out." Jackson shrugged apologetically. "Sorry."  
"Oh well, I seem to be wasting my time." Drall huffed. "Perhaps the secrets I hold, the great and terrible secrets of this machine, are already known to you? Perhaps I should remain here in my little dusty alcove and let you figure it all out yourselves?"

"Drall," Delenn said with an amused expression. "I see your time here as not changed you, I remember when I answered one of your challenges first time you went into a similar sulk." She dropped her voice and wrinkled her nose. "Oh no, you don't need me your teacher then, I'll just retire as you seem to know it all already, I'll just go lie down for the rest of the week." She grinned widely and returned her voice to normal. "Close enough?"  
"Too close!" Drall bellowed with laughter. "You were trouble, and I like trouble!" he turned to Jackson. "You people hold many surprises, but be assured the universe is full of them, as you see even I with all the knowledge of this place can still be surprised!"  
O'Neill and his friends smiled with a little confusion, but mostly went along.  
"Yes, you have come a long way for so few." Drall continued. "I know more than you can guess, I have been exploring the limits of this device and have seen much. I know your proud ancestry, I know of the lost city, I can see and hear the Ancients when they still trod the grass and soil of your world. If you want to glimpse your future General, start by looking into the past."  
"Okay, but that was a little more cryptic then I was going for." O'Neill replied.  
"Then perhaps the term P3X-7171 may be of more use to you." Drall offered. "When you return you should investigate, you may find something useful there."  
"Like?"  
"Something useful." Was Dralls knowing reply. "Come on, I don't want to spoil the surprise! You'll love it!"  
O'Neill sighed in resignation. "Fine, but if it hatches out of an egg and sticks to Daniel's face, we'll be having words."  
"Thanks Jack, really, thanks."  
"Don't mention it, it's least I can do." O'Neill smiled back with an amused eye.  
"Well," Drall slapped his holographic hands together, they still made a loud clap as he did so. "I think you may want to head back, your politicians seem to have stopped listening to themselves talk. A favourite pastime of those type the universe over."  
"Oh yeah, I knew there was something I was trying to avoid." O'Neill grimaced. "I thought it might have been having my head crushed in a vice, but no, it's worse. Woolsey."  
Carter and Jackson exhaled at the same time in realisation, the bald negotiator was not dearly loved in the SGC.  
"We will visit again, my old friend." Delenn smiled.  
"See that you do, I have more research to do, more leads to follow and with luck I shall have a great history for you when you next return!" The elder Minbari boasted. "Hopefully you won't have heard this one."

The group began to leave, Carter and Jackson eager for a look at the cavern again on their way out.  
"General." Drall moved up and caught O'Neill's attention, speaking quieter than he would have believed possible for the extroverted keeper of the Machine. "I can see the concern on your brow. All I will say is that the universe has a plan, and you can be assured that whatever path you find yourself on it will always take you to the right place, at the right time, to make a difference."  
O'Neill paused. "Your machine told you that?"  
"A hundred and twenty years of living told me that." Drall replied warmly. "You might feel like your best days are behind you, that you are leaving that which you think defines you. General, your true moment has yet to come. You are a man of destiny, your choices shape billions of lives. Embrace what lies ahead, it is always going to be worth it."  
"Thanks." O'Neill said. "Again, that was a little more cryptic than I had hoped…"  
"Well I am not an oracle General, I can just tell you what is on my mind, nebulous and distant as that may be. Look for the moments, you will know them when you see them. And, we will talk again."  
He moved to join the rest of the team and was replaced by Delenn.  
"You are still well down here?"  
"Never better." Drall confirmed. "This is truly where I was meant to be, and you I see are where you were meant to be."  
"You stay in my heart, my old teacher."  
"And you mine. Pass my regards to your husband, and your son." He grinned. "David is a good strong name, not so strong as Drall of course…"  
He was cut off by Delenn's laugh. "You really don't change. I am glad."  
"Be safe Delenn." He answered. "You have endured great trials, but there are more to come. Trust your heart."  
They bowed to each other, and with a final wink from Drall they parted and went back to an expectant world.

Babylon 5

Peoples Representative Shen Xiaoy collapsed back in her chair, finding it not even remotely as comfortable as she had hoped. The negotiations had finally ended and the wording had been agreed upon, a verbal minefield where one false step would have caused the whole thing to go up in smoke. Often she resented that part of her job, wrangling words to try and get people to live up to their promises. Part of her put it down to the duplicitous nature of capitalism, something she was initially depressed to hear was now the main Earth government in this reality.  
They had retired from the discussion, Woosely looking pleased with himself, and returned to their quarters until Vice President Delenn arrived. While the agreement was between the two Earths and didn't actually involve the ISA directly, Delenn would be signing as a high profile witness to the treaty to make sure both sides were in agreement. Technically anything the EA gained would be shared with the ISA at large, but President Sheridan was keen to get an independent agreement set up between the SGC and the ISA itself.  
Her door chimed.  
"Who is it?" she sighed in annoyance, the day had already been frustratingly busy without needing visitors.  
"Ambassador Xiaoy?" a male voice asked. "Can I have a moment?"  
"This isn't a good time."  
"Please, I will not be long."  
"Fine." She resigned. "Door, open."

With a clank the portal retracted to reveal a young man in Earth Force combat flight suit. He was fairly short and slender and shared a Chinese ancestry. He stepped into what was euthemistically called a VIP room and stopped in front of her.  
"What can I help you with?" Shen asked.  
"Madam, can I just ask with respect, does your family come from Beijing?"  
She blinked, a little perplexed at the question. "Yes, why do you ask?"  
"My name is Lieutenant Yin Xiaoy, and I think somewhere down the line we are related."  
She sat bolt upright in the chair, her discomfort gone. "You're family, they are from the same place?"  
"They were, until World War III and we moved into the mountains." He shrugged at the information. "But when I noticed your name on the boarding list, I just had to come and see you."  
"This is unbelievable!" Shen stood. "But there are two and a half centuries between us."  
"I still managed to look through the family records, they survived the wars and prove that you and I are related. This is probably some strange twist of the universe, but I felt I had to see you and warn you."  
"Warn me?"  
He stepped closer. "Move away from Beijing, and take all your family with you."  
"Why?"  
"Because one day in the future, not until your grandchildren are grown, Beijing will be destroyed and many of our family will die."  
"You mentioned World War III?" Shen asked. "Does it involve us?"  
"Yes, but it was the civil war that followed which came close to destroying us. China was weak and divided and we fell because of it." His voice grew quiet. "A billion people died, maybe more. You have to save the family."  
"It is hard to believe that can be true!" Shen said. "We come from different worlds, what happened here may not happen where I come from."  
"Do you believe that?" the pilot asked. "Do you really believe that?"

Shen sat down, in her soul she knew that as China grew it was coming more and more into conflict with its neighbours, especially Russia and America. The chance of that sparking an all out war had crossed her mind before. "What happened?"  
"There was a war between India and Pakistan, it grew to involve us and the Russians." Her descendant spoke. "The United States had secretly deployed orbital weapons that shot down our nuclear missiles before they struck Russia, denying us a quick and bloodless victory."  
"A nuclear war?" Shen gasped.  
"Yes, but mostly limited to tactical weapons and cruise missiles. It did not defeat our enemies, but did alter the climate for a few years. After the United States and Europe imposed peace we found our crops failing, our already weakened economy collapsed and the country fell into civil war as warlords tore apart the country. It was the end of our dream, the world saw we would be the greatest super power and they conspired to stop us. Since then China has never risen so great, always pinned down by the western controlled Earth Alliance." He snorted. "It is sickening."  
Shen shook her head. "That is terrible!"  
"They used their technological edge against us." The officer said. "In a few more years it would have been enough, we could have defeated them because our own technology would have equalled that of the United States. If only we had a few more years head start."  
Shen nodded. "Are you saying you think it could happen to my country through the portal?"  
"You know what the Americans and Europeans are like, and the Russians!" he scoffed. "They will always try and keep China out of the major decisions, do you think it is coincidence this mission is lead by an American? Or that China has no true representation in their little Stargate programme? Or that the ships are all American in construction and crew?"

"Wait," Shen frowned. "How do you know all this?"  
"It was in the briefing notes your American leader gave to my Earth Alliance superior." The other Xiaoy answered. "Typical capitalist propaganda."  
"They are not all as bad as you seem to think." Shen countered.  
"Maybe, but you don't know what will happen next. I do." Her companion said. "You are living in a great time, when we were at our height, when we almost took our rightful place in the world. These people are the same as the ones from my history, watch them Shen, you will see them start to muscle you out, to keep China down because they do not want to lose their place as the worlds leading power. And when you are too powerful to bully down, then they will bomb you into submission."  
"It can't happen."  
"It already has, twice." He replied. "It just hasn't happened to you yet, and maybe, just maybe, you can do something to stop it."  
"What can I do?" Shen shrugged. "I am just a diplomat."  
"A diplomat held in high regard by the Peoples government, how else would you be here in this job?" He smiled. "If you speak, many will listen, and if you deliver, then you are bound to be taken notice of."  
"Deliver? Deliver what?"  
"Technology." The man stated. "Enough to give you an edge over the other governments and make sure that when they come for you, China can fight back and defend itself."  
"We are already sharing technology from the Earth Alliance."  
"It is not the best they have, just like your American friends are not sharing the best they have. Typical capitalists on both side, the few profit and the majority trudge on. Together, new China can help old China. It will not be easy, but if you can set up channels with people you trust in your government, I can do the same with the Chinese senators in the Alliance and I can acquire through them the best technology from here. Items that will advance China centuries."  
Shen stared at him. "You know I cannot give you an answer."  
"I know, you must talk to the Party first." Agreed her relative. "Do so, but do it quick. Our people will stay in touch, so you and I can stay in touch. If your government agrees, then we can start building a future for China."  
He stepped towards the door with a smile. "I must leave now, but consider what I have said. I will see you again Shen Xiaoy, fortune go with you."  
He then left, and Shen found her head filled with apprehension and uncertainty.

Officer Yin Xiaoy entered his quarters and sealed the door, heading straight for the communication terminal. He keyed in a secure code and attached a scrambler before routing his call. On the other end a curt female voice answered.  
"Thirteen."  
"Contact successful, Chinese representative seems open to our needs. We may have a channel into the inner workings of the other Earth."  
"Well done agent. Continue using Shen as required, once we contact their military command we will no longer need her. Make sure there are no loose ends."  
"Yes control."  
"Thirteen out."  
The officer, who of course had no connection at all with the Xiaoy family disconnected the scrambler, removed his military uniform and put on a casual suit before leaving in time to catch his scheduled business flight back to Mars. His true identity as a member of Bureau 13 remaining unknown to anyone who encountered him, as was his abnormal telepathic strength.

A few hours later.

Delenn maintained her formal presence as she was introduced by O'Neill to the representatives of his home planet, a reasonably diverse mixture of people from a half dozen governments that all had some share in the Star Gate programme. Delenn had devoted countless hours to studying Earth history ever since the disaster of first contact and the more hopeful times of the Babylon project. She knew this period in human history was one of relative peace between World Wars where the nations faced off against each other in economic or ideological terms, not in military terms. Even so, despite these divisions the people in front of her had put on a grand show of unity, something she had recognized early on about humanity.  
Even now they were a divided people, torn by internal squabbles and petty differences like language, culture and pride. They were dichotomous, war like, brutal and cynical, yet could also have astonishing wisdom and an insight into affairs that took even the oldest of races by surprise. Even Kosh had been impressed by humanity in his own inscrutable Vorlon manner, enough to lay down his life to further the cause. When it came down to it the Humans put aside these differences and they united, no matter the scale of the threat if it threatened one from outside, then it threatened them all.  
That devotion to each other overriding differences, that dedication to the species and desire to see things put right had put humanity in place at the heart of the galaxy. It had beaten the Dilgar when all else had failed, it had kept the most powerful war machine in the known galaxy at bay for two years when the last race to fight the Minbari collapsed in weeks. And at the final reckoning the concept had united the defiant into a force that met the eldest of powers in open war and delivered the galaxy from madness. Sheridan's people had done all that, and by speaking to O'Neill she saw his world was following in those footsteps.

She had spoken to O'Neill, Carter and Jackson about where they came from and what the galaxy was like. She had heard that most of the races here did not exist, or at least were not known, where they came from and that for thousands of years a race known as the Goa'uld had ruled with an iron fist as the dominant race. They had enslaved early humanity but eventually been driven off, only to be encountered again when the fledgling Stargate Command connected the first off world gate and sent a team through.  
Less than a decade later the Goa'uld were in disarray, their greatest leaders dead, their empire crumbling and former slave races now in open revolt, all spear headed by work from Earth and its divided peoples. The more she listened the more amazed she was, it was not just Goa'uld but also a group called Replicators who had come close to defeating what was by all accounts a First One level species, only to be aided by a little human ingenuity and lateral thinking. In gratitude they had provided some aid to the SGC and made humanity's first interstellar craft a truly formidable prospect. Now Earth had two starships with three more nearing completion in a month or two.  
The most surprising thing was they had done all this under total secrecy with only a few thousand people on the planet knowing the whole facts about the off world operations and those times when the war had almost touched Earth itself. It seemed that even in small groups humans had an ability to derail the grandest plans of tyrants. It was not something that had escaped the notice of the Grey Council. They had been more than a little surprised when reports filtered back from Minbari fleet elements engaging the Drakh of the new ship seen with a human crew. When the truth had been shared with the senior officials of the ISA governments nobody quite knew what to make of it, there was still no official ISA policy on the gate and what lay beyond, but they had been quick to set up a working friendship and had shared forces, though so far they had been mostly human vessels.

Naturally enough there were negative reactions, especially from the Warrior caste. She had hoped that perhaps Neroons final display of nobility would shame the other warriors into accepting the truth of their position, but even so few years later the disgraced Shakiri was once more rising in prominence and driving the caste elders to a more radical position. Many of the warrior clans remained undecided, but almost inevitably the Wind Swords, most militant and radical of the clans, had taken a stand firmly against this new human presence declaring it a threat to Minbar and the first act of a war of revenge against their people. Thankfully they did not gain the support they would have had ten years earlier, and Delenn was relieved that at least some things had changed, but even so they were working to focus fear and anger on these new and dangerous human ships and if her people were not careful it could end in disaster.

The signing took place quietly in the observation lounge behind the initial bulb of the station, the wide windows offering a panoramic view of space beyond. There was no media present so the true nature of the signatories was not revealed, but the room had a fair number of military and diplomatic personnel including several Alien Ambassadors. The two leading representatives from each side sat side by side and at the same moment put their names on the document on behalf of their respective Presidents, both unable to leave their planet for very different reasons. Representatives Woosley and Bartlett then stood and with wide and possible sincere smiles they shook hands, a nice gesture for the press which unfortunately were not present. It did at least garner a round of applause from the assembled Ambassadors.  
Both sides had managed to secure the things they had most desired, the Alliance would receive Goa'uld level shield generators, data on Naquadah reactors and inertial compensator systems in addition to continued weapons research. The SGC and IOA nations would be receiving help expanding their infrastructure from a planetary to an interstellar power including robotics, automated shipyards to be deployed on the dark side of the Moon, viable Fusion reactors and fuel cells for commercial use, crystal based computer technology, a new range of tachyon based sensors and communicators and military equipment for ground forces and spacecraft, mostly focused on engines and electromagnetic field generators used to reduce friction in gun barrels and missile racks and give ballistic weapons more range an power. The icing on the cake had been a handful of Earth Force ships and orbital weapons platforms to rapidly expand humanity's defences until the SGC could field a large number of its own ships. Those ships would also help the SGC designers see how to mass produce large spacecraft for when they brought their space based shipyards online.  
On paper it looked like the IOA had the better end of the deal, and while they did have a higher volume of equipment coming in that technology would simply allow Earth to create an infrastructure equal to the other Spacefaring worlds of the galaxy, letting it stand beside the Hebridians or Free Jaffa as a force to be respected able to project power across the galaxy. But the technology the EA gained would let it outstrip almost every other race in the galaxy, letting human ships tear apart any Drakh force they came across and finally letting the high command relax about the state of Earth Force ships compared to the Minbari. With this technology a Warlock would be unmatched by anything on this side of the gate. Naturally both sides had kept some aces to themselves, the SGC weren't about to reveal their Asgard level shields or advanced Hyperdrives, while at the same time Earth Force kept absolutely silent on the concept of Shadow technology and cybernetics. Still, both sides were extremely pleased with the deal, and that seemed to be sufficient for now.

The two humans returned to their seats allowing Delenn to move to the centre, she nodded to both of them respectfully and then addressed the room.  
"Change is the Universe's way of keeping life interesting." She spoke. "No matter how long we live, how much we see, or how long we talk we will never have all the answers. There will always be surprises, always be things once called impossible now becoming common place. Everyday challenges our preconceptions, it makes us look anew at the universe around us and through that action we also see ourselves bathed in that new light."  
She took up the pen and located where she needed to sign as witness.  
"Today we see the impossible and make it common place. A different world that shares so much with its twin here, A different universe existing beside our own, An entirely new place to explore and understand and draw wonder from. It will change how we look at everything, and it will change how we look at ourselves."  
She signed the document, making it full and binding before placing the pen down. In the future she hoped to bring the ISA into these kind of negotiations more actively, but neither she or Sheridan had the authority to interfere in sovereign business, which included a deal between these two near identical planets.  
"It is done." She confirmed. "And so much less trouble than our last dimensional exchange."

Prometheus.

"Oh it is good to be home." O'Neill grinned. "Well as good as home anyway."  
"I heard the negotiations went well sir." Pendergast greeted O'Neill on the bridge with a smile.  
"Yeah probably, most of the time I was trying to make Woosley's head explode with just the power of my mind." He shrugged. "I need more practice."  
"Well sir I can report all systems operational and course laid in, we're ready to go."  
"All righty then." O'Neill clapped his hands. "We'll be taking Mr Garibaldi back with us too, he'll be making sure we get what we signed up for."  
"Aye sir." Pendergast confirmed, then nodded to his team to begin departure preparations.  
O'Neill opened a channel to the station, "Captain Lochley, General O'Neill."  
"Go ahead General."  
"Time for us to haul ass back home, thanks for your hospitality, it's been a great stay." He paused. "Well except for the day we almost all got killed and I had to fly through a planet."  
"well at least it was interesting, I can see why the President was so impressed with the Daedalus." Lochley commented. "Safe journey General, you are clear to go."  
"Thank you Captain, Prometheus out." He turned to Pendergast. "Okay Colonel, hit it."  
With barely a shudder the ship entered hyperspace on it's short journey to Earth and the gateway home. The familiar twisting energies reminding the General of his first trip on this vessel barely a couple of years ago, could have been a lifetime.

"What do you think?" Jackson asked plainly.  
"About what?" O'Neill replied. He had joined Jackson and Carter beside one of the observation windows, looking at Mars coming up as they made the approach to the gate.  
"About the Earth Alliance, what do you think?"  
"I think as a whole, they're human." O'Neill twisted his face a little as he thought. "And that they like grey on their space ships and have a fascination with building really big guns. I think we'll get along just fine, it's like we're from the same planet."  
"The technology we've gained is simple enough compared to what we have," Carter continued. "But the big difference is it can be mass produced economically. We can solve the energy crisis overnight, cut pollution to nothing, and make space travel a reality for the whole world. Even before disclosure we can start feeding these developments into the planet a little at a time, enough to start making things better."  
"Depends what we're trying to solve." Jackson added. "I mean it isn't going to solve inequalities or old hatreds, even two hundred years and near extinction hasn't solved that for these guys."  
"Once we move out into space and start making a real difference we're going to start making enemies, already we've got the Wraith trying to fight us in Pegasus, that's going to need us to deploy warships and support them long term." Carter listed the points. "And for that we need a solid infrastructure and a lot of people working towards it. The more we get involved the harder it is to maintain secrecy."  
"We'll leave that to the President." O'Neill cut in. "Disclosure has to happen one day, but I doubt we'll get much say in it." He winced. "And I forgot to look up Harry Potter."  
"He dies." Jackson said before thinking. "I shouldn't have said that should I?"  
"Stick to your Narn book." O'Neill grunted. "It has covers identical to their clothes, and that just isn't right."  
"A lot to take in." Jackson remarked.  
"Hell of a lot." Carter nodded. "I'm going to try and get on one of those Minbari ships next time, see if it's gravitic drive works on the same principles as Goa'uld propulsion."  
"Can't wait." O'Neill said flatly. "Well I guess we all almost died but didn't, so that means it's back to a mountain of paperwork. The thrill might just kill me." The prospect of shuffling jobs and ending up with yet more paperwork and even less real contribution to the way things worked was something else O'Neill had brought back from this trip, and he had to admit to feeling some trepidation. He wasn't afraid of the job, but he was afraid of losing who he was in a role which simply smothered him in useless details and simply stopped him doing good.  
"We'll be home soon." He announced. "And I've been putting this off until after the conference was done. I have to go and write some letters, try and explain without actually explaining why eight of our people won't be coming home."  
General O'Neill headed to his quarters to attend to the sombre task as the ship made the transition, leaving Jackson to quietly read his book, and Carter to return to the finer points of Neutron weapons. It was a reminder of how dangerous life could be, and that sometimes luck would run out.  
Hopefully it wouldn't be anytime soon.


	21. Chapter 21 Inevitable Changes

Well everyone this is the end of book 1 but dont worry Book 2 will be along shortly, we've already got the first 2 chapters all played out. Book 1 was all about setting the stage for what chronicles will be, we haven't even begun to tell the story yet. We've planned 5 books for the whole of chronicles so needless to say its a story thats going to emcompass years. So be on the lookout for "Chronicles of the Crusade Book 2: The Long Road" sometime early to mid next month. Again I'd like to thank the Chronicles Team of Tyr, Lord of Misrule, Chris and our newest member Alnair. Shortly we hope to have some pics for you concerning the ships we've created from the F-302B to the Flight 2 Daedalus and some refit EA ships. Enjoy everyone.

Cheyenne Mountain.

Some things remained constant, the sun rose in the East, the tides swept back and forth, fish always seemed to know when he was coming and evacuate the section of river he insisted on angling in for several hours, and paperwork. Good old paperwork. Not for the first time General O'Neill wondered if this had been a good idea, or infact the worst choice he had ever made. Perhaps the second worst.  
Ultimately he had come to a simple conclusion, he was lost. Not literally of course, well apart from that one time, but figuratively. He used to have a clear mission he could accomplish and feel satisfied about after. Usually it involved blowing up stuff which was of course an extra bonus but mostly it had revolved around returning from a trip knowing he had achieved something, and usually something quite spectacular.  
That was gone now, he didn't have that simple life and instead was focusing on the long term needs of Earth, and as with all long term projects it was taking a long time to get results. SGC commander was in many ways harder than taking a team through the gate and he was realising this. O'Neill had always respected General Hammond, but at this point he was actively considering setting up a temple to the man. He expected Teal'c would be happy to help.

With blessed relief he heard a rap at his door followed by Samantha Carter entered.  
"Oh thank Hammond." O'Neill fell back in his admittedly sweet chair. "It's been too long Carter."  
"General, we spoke this morning." Carter smiled widely. "About two hours ago."  
"My point stands." O'Neill gestured at the chairs on the other side of the desk. "Tell me you have something interesting to say."  
"Well yes, I think so." Carter said. "Earth Alliance has set up the first hardware transfer, it'll happen later today."  
"Don't waste anytime do they?" the General grinned. "Guess they're eager to see our end of the bargain."  
"Daniel is busy picking items out of Area 51." She added. "Literally, it's like a supermarket spree."  
"More we give, more we get." O'Neill shrugged. "Any word from Atlantis?"  
"Still nothing sir, not even a micro burst."  
He frowned. "Things must be pretty tight out there if they can't spare power to send a message."  
Both he and Carter understood there was another reason for a lack of communication, but neither of them shared it.  
"The Prometheus will be ready to meet them." Carter continued. "And General Hammond has expressed an interest in going up to meet them."  
"On Prometheus?"  
"Yes sir."  
"Well I guess it's his ship, and they're only going to the Asteroid belt and back." O'Neill said, though by the tone of his voice he wasn't entirely happy. "Not like we can tie him down in his office." He tilted his head as he considered the idea. "No, because then there's the prison thing."

Carter rested a little more easily in her chair. "Permission to speak freely?"  
With a slightly wild eyed look O'Neill waved his hand and grinned. "Be free Colonel."  
"You still having some trouble adjusting?" she asked with genuine concern.  
"Well that might not be a problem for long, not if Woosley is to be believed.  
She allowed a mischievous smile. "Kind of a long shot with that one."  
"Yeah," O'Neill sighed. "But not this time, looks like people want to move me up and out. I don't know why."  
"Perhaps they've spotted your potential."  
"I'll believe that when Apophis wins the snowboarding championship in Hell."  
Carter chuckled. "Things aren't what they used to be, they're better, and that's mostly thanks to you."  
"Us Carter, thanks to us." He corrected.  
"Yes sir, but the point is you are needed elsewhere. Not just wanted, but needed."  
"That's what they keep saying, so why don't I believe it?"  
"Because you haven't had a chance to trully prove yourself yet." Carter answered. "The SGC is growing, after today alone we'll have more warship tonnage than ever before. We used to have tactical assets, now we're going strategic and need a higher level commander. That's you and General Hammond sir, real Generals doing real General's job."  
"I'd still rather be shooting stuff, just for old times sake. Sometimes."  
"It's all about sacrifice sir, good of Earth and all that."  
"Yeah." O'Neill shrugged. "You know Teal'c would understand, where is he?"  
"On Chulak." Carter answered. "He sends his best."  
"Hanging with his Jaffa buddies, think he's forgotten about us?"  
"No sir, he'll be back in a couple of weeks."  
"Freakin' sweet." O'Neill grinned. "It's been too quiet without him."  
"Yes sir, because it's usually so loud and boisterous whenever Teal'c is around." Carter twinkled.  
"You should see him playing basketball." O'Neill winced. "He's good."  
"I saw you play table tennis with him once." She grinned.  
"Don't remind me." He shuddered. "He used to hit that ball like it owed him money."

Carter shifted in her chair a little. "Sorry General, but I do have to go and check out the progress on the new Mark Nine bombs."  
"Yeah sure." He nodded. "You know I'd be there with you looking over your shoulder and making helpful and inciteful suggestions."  
"Like make it bigger?"  
"Pretty much."  
"I think I got it covered, a little surprise we can use if we ever need it."  
"Well I got some errands of my own, at least it gets me out of this chair. Well, eventually."  
Carter stood and headed for the door. "General, this is the best thing for us all, we need a General we have confidence in to lead us. This needs to happen."  
"Maybe it does." O'Neill agreed. "But it doesn't mean I have to like it."  
"No sir, but at least the rest of us will." She nodded. "See you soon sir, hopefully with some new toys."

Cheyenne Springs

The basketball dropped through the hoop with a satisfying thunk, the sharp noise reverberating through the large and currently empty room. The sole occupant darted forward, picked up the ball and began to practice dribbling, weaving up and down between imaginary opponents before snapping around and lobbing another shot at the hoop, this one with less success. It bounced away and headed for the door, only stopping when it was caught in the hands of a newly arrived man at the door.  
"You need to work on your posture." General O'Neill turned over the ball in his hands. "If you don't stand straight you'll never make the hoop."  
Camoron Mitchell came to a stop, breathing heavily as he greeted the General. "Afternoon sir."  
"Good to see you active Colonel." O'Neill entered the court, dressed in a way almost described as scruffy. "Your legs working okay?"  
"Never better sir." Mitchell replied, jogging up and down on the spot to prove the point. "I'm ready to get back in active duty sir, you remember my request?"  
"Ahh yes, the transfer." O'Neill bounced the ball a couple of times. "You sure about this Colonel? The Air group always needs good pilots, especially with the funky new guns we've been able to cram onto the 302. It's a serious piece of hardware for a pilot like you."  
"I'm sure sir, haven't thought about anything else since." Mitchell said firmly. "I want to join SG1."  
O'Neill smiled a little. "Can't really blame you Colonel, even though the new 302 is just plain awesome I'd always pick an SG team if I could." He sized up the hoop a good dozen yards away. "You know SG1 only takes the best, high standards Colonel, you're going to have to prove yourself every day."  
"I know sir, and I'm ready." Mitchell confirmed. "I can do this General, I can do a good job, and I think we both know that. You need a safe pair of hands for your old team and I can do that. I'll keep them safe sir."

O'Neill bounced the ball again, and from almost the centre of the court threw it at the hoop. Mitchell watched with absent interest trying to figure which way it would bounce when it hit the far wall, but it didn't. The ball arced perfectly through the air and dropped through the hoop with barely a sound, bouncing a few times under it and halting.  
Mitchell spun to see O'Neill stood their calmly smiling. "Holy! That was incredible! Where did you learn to do that?"  
The General shrugged. "It was nothing."  
As Mitchell turned back to look at the ball O'Neill's eyes went wide as he punched the air repeatedly in joy, almost dropping to his knees in a silent scream of victory over such an impressive feat before quickly straightening up before the Colonel turned back, holding the same calm look.  
"That was awesome!"  
"I practice with field reports and the waste paper bin in my office." He grinned. "Anyway, you'll need this."  
Mitchell walked over as O'Neill produced an envelope from his pocket. "What is it sir?"  
"Your orders." O'Neill announced. "Welcome to SG1 Colonel Mitchell. Don't screw up."  
"Yes sir." Mitchell beamed. "I mean no sir, I mean thank you sir."  
"You know the whole responsibility thing, so I'll just say good luck. Congratulations Colonel."  
Mitchell was grinning like a child with an armful of chocolate and O'Neill was happy to let him. He remembered when he had been given the same job, he hadn't really appreciated it, he couldn't, not at that time of his life with the loss of his son still a bitterly close memory. SG1 had saved the world a few times, but it also saved him, and maybe that's why letting go of it was such a hard thing to do.  
Mitchell deserved this, and O'Neill knew he was a good choice, so he was glad to let the officer celebrate in a way O'Neill hadn't. Perhaps there was something to that old adage of not appreciating something until it was gone.  
"See you in a week Colonel." O'Neill nodded and headed out. A few minutes later from outside Mitchell could have sworn he heard a voice like O'Neill's yelling 'Woohoo!' loud enough to shake glass.

The SGC  
That Evening

"We are picking up multiple incomings; they appeared in the asteroid belt." One of the technicians announced suddenly after the long-range sensor alerted her of new development.

Samantha Carter glanced at her direction and then Garibaldi who was standing behind her. She remembered Garibaldi already had arranged to bring in more of the new technologies from his home in advance. She wondered what technologies that they'd be getting today. There couldn't be a better day than this. "I believe that is the convoy from Garibaldi's universe. Is the Prometheus still there?"

"Yes, ma'am. The Prometheus is still in the vicinity as we speak."

"Wait 'till you see these ships, reliable ones." Garibaldi whistled and clasped his hands together, grinning. "The Earth Alliance is sending a surprise of their own as well."

The Prometheus was nearby on sentry duty when a convoy exited from the dimension portal, about twelve civilian-type transports and a handful of smaller Earth Alliance warships traveling in staggered formation as they came out one by one. They went straight toward the Earth as they came out of the portal.

"The Convoy from the other side…" Major Gant announced, holding an electronic tablet displaying the information about the visitors. "…they're here right on schedule."

"I can see that" Colonel Pendergast nodded and glanced at the main monitor to his left displaying the convoy.

"According to the sensor readout, there are twelve transports all of them are next generation Skylarks, they are being escorted by two Olympus-class corvettes one Artemis-class heavy frigate and a Hyperion class cruiser."

Colonel Pendergast was looking forward to see the Earth Alliance starships that were being donated to the Stargate Command. In his opinion, it was much better to have more assets than having a single ship to defend Earth just barely while another ship was away at another galaxy fighting the life-sucking aliens. The donation from the other side was very much welcomed. He was not surprised that the smaller and obsolete warships were as big as his ship, having seen much larger vessels like the Excalibur and Warlock-class vessels.

"Excellent, the more ships we get, the better our homeworld defense will be"

"Colonel…" Major Gant was having a different outlook as she stared out the forward window at the commercial vessel when the convoy passed the Prometheus in full view. She turned around eagerly with a slight smile on her face. "Colonel, you should take a look at those ships."

Colonel Pendergast lent forward to take a good look, his right elbow on knee, and his eyes widen, grasping what Gant had been talking about. He smiled. "Well I'll be damned. That explains why they arrived on the time."

In full view of the Prometheus, the amazed bridge crews could see the most recognized marking on the Skylark transports as they flew by. Their rear section was painted in dark purple 'FedEx' logo and its motto 'The universe on time' was visibly written on the forward fuselage. It was quite surprising this company still survived two hundred years into the future and retained its famous trademark, a good sign that the Earth Alliance was much like their Earth in many aspects especially the capitalism. This sighting gave them a glimpse what the Earth might looki like in the future, that FedEx was one of them.

No wonder why Garibaldi regarded FedEx as highly reliable shipping contractor, they were able to deliver the goods for his mega-corporation on time whenever he asked them.

"Ma'am, there is a transmission from the Prometheus." The technician reported.

"Open the channel here" Carter ordered.

The technician nodded and routed the communication to her monitor. The live image of Colonel Pendergast came on, seated on his seat contentedly.

"Colonel Pendergast." Carter smiled in recognition.

"Lieutenant Colonel Carter, I have a confirmation that the convoy has arrived all right and on time." Pendergast said with clear pleasure. "You should see these ships. That was an unexpected surprise."

She spun around and stared at Garibaldi who was grinning.

A small group of federal-owned Chevrolet Tahoes arrived at the secret base, Area 51, where a next batch of the starships was being built with the new technologies aquired and developed with the Earth Alliance. The reason of leaving for that forsaken place was that it had the longest runaway in the world, making it a suitable landing site for a dozen of the cargo transports from the other side of the gateway. It took them a couple hours to get there via helicopter and then ground transportation.

"Mr. Garibaldi, I hope you'r comfortable with the ride." Dr. Jackson asked the man standing next to him after they stepped out of the sport utility vehicle into the runaway.

"Not bad, it isn't quiet as comfortable as the vehicles back at home." Garibaldi replied politely as he was glazing out toward the desert. "We don't use this type of vehicle anymore in my reality. They've been replaced with the skimmers, really nifty and quick transportation. You should give one of them a spin."

Colonel Carter looked back at Garibaldi from the front passenger seat with curiosity on her face. "Skimmer?"

"Its a flying car." He looked away from the window toward Carter and made a flying gesture. "Vroom, of course, they don't fly very high for a safety reason. On the other hand, the military ones especially latest ones are amazing, very fast and agile. They could probably outrun and outturn your helicopters."

"Seems very dangerous to have that kind of vehicles in dense urban area like the city." Jackson remarked unbelievingly. "The skyscrapers, you know?"

"There are safety features built into these vehicles to prevent accidents. Now that we have very stringent laws, the accident rate is fairly low."

"Oh." Jackson nodded slightly.

"I think that I should visit the other side sometime once the plague is eliminated, the place of your sounds very amazing from what you told us." Carter sounded very fascinated with the proposal of catch a glimpse of their advanced technologies and new concepts.

"I could arrange a tour around the Earth Alliance for you guys." Garibaldi beamed. "You know. this place is now a training ground for the Earth Alliance Marine Corp. I was trained here and this place brought me some good memories."

Jackson and Carter looked at him blankly as his remark took them by surprise.

"The convoy is in orbit." A young lieutenant announced after the report came to him through his earpiece. "They are descending over the Pacific Ocean now. The warships are breaking off and heading toward the moon. We are currently tracking them on the screen."

"These warships don't have the capability to fly in the atmosphere but the transports do… right?" Carter stated from her memory.

"Yup, you got it right. These ships are older, over thirty years old. Great ships they fought during the Dilgar War. They kicked some serious ass and took names." Garibaldi nodded with a wicked grin.

"In the Dilgar War right?" asked Carter.

"Yup. Its a long story, let's just say…it was the first interstellar war that my people got involved in and won. The war was probably humanity's finest moment."

Jackson grimaced. "Sam the more I read about the Dilgar they seemed just as bad if not worse than the Goa'uld."

"Space Nazi's, you should ask Gen. Franklin sometime since he's a historian buff." Garibaldi said, still looking upwardly at the blue sky. He raised his arm and pointed at a certain direction very relaxed. "There!"

A dozen of cargo transports were descending toward the Area 51 at very steep angle. The pilots knew what they were doing, they had done this dozens of times before, and it became a habit. With full blessing from Sheridan, the transport pilots were handpicked, all of them were ex-military, and they signed the secret disclosure agreement and thoroughly briefed about their assignment before they departed to the other side. They were instructed to reenter over the Pacific Ocean to mask their approach and fly toward the destination at highest ceiling as possible. The plan worked so far and no one expect for the government noticed their approach.

The leading transport was the first to slow down and touch down on the runaway gracefully with the landing gears gently planted on the earth and the rest of group followed suit. The convoy landed flawlessly with precision and synchronization. Jackson and Carter stood there staring at the transports their eyes broadened and they nearly dropped their jaws. What they saw was a clearly familiar trademark, the FedEx and its famous purple-colored rear fuselage. At the least, it was good to see one of the similarities between two realities.

Garibaldi gave a short laugh and walked passed them toward the transports. "Surprise! C'mon, follow me!"

"FedEx! It still exist a couple of hundred years into the future… I meant your reality." Jackson observed as he and Carter followed the ambassador from another reality. "A positive sign that the capitalism is still alive and kicking."

"Good thing is that its still reliable delivery service, I suppose. So, its your corporation's permanent shipping contractor." Carter smiled. "UPS?"

"FedEx bought it out twenty years ago." Garibaldi shrugged. "Now they boasted of having three thousand ships in their inventory, running the overnight deliveries in the Earth Alliance and beyond."

"Three thousands for a corporation! That must be quite very expensive to manage a fleet at that size."

"Ah well, the ugly side of capitalism is still there," Jackson remarked almost pessimistically.

"Really, there is a way. Their typical customers are mega-corporations which nicely covered the upkeep expense." Garibaldi countered. "I pay them very generously for their top quality service, never had a problem with them really."

"That explains it all."

A trio stopped before the leading transport with its underside ramp fully open and one of the transport crews walked down the ramp. He addressed his employer professionally. "Mr. Garibaldi, the cargo is perfectly intact and we will start unloading in few minutes."

"Excellent!" Garibaldi gestured a pair toward the ship interior. "The cargo is one of many technology transfers from my reality. Among the cargo is the tachyon communication system, I think you will find it very useful to communicate with your ships in the deep space, no time lag and all of that crap. These ships also carry the medicine that doesn't exist in your world yet. There's also more of the stuff that your government would love to try out…"

The SGC  
Two days later

Daniel Jackson was sat in his little corner of Cheyenne mountain studying historical texts, which in itself was nothing new though the words held some strange power he hadn't experienced before. They were not a description of past events, but of possible future ones.  
He took off his spectacles and rubbed his eyes, he'd been reading for over twelve hours and had only managed a cursory glance of the years between 2005 and 2267 over in their neighbouring dimension. Their cousins in the Earth Alliance had a colourful past and it was Jackson's hope that from learning what happened there they could try and prevent problems back home. Things like the revelation about alien life seemed to have gone down well across the gate, but the formation of a unified government for the whole planet had proven virtually impossible until a race known as Centauri had shown up bearing gifts and taxes. He was beginning to form the opinion that alien contact and World unity went hand in hand together.

"Hi Daniel." Colonel Carter breezed in. "Is that the same cup of coffee from last night?"  
He looked at the brew, a light film developing on the surface. "Oh yeah, been a long night."  
"Reading these notes?"  
"History of the other Earth, thought we could learn something."  
"And?" Carter queried.  
"I've learnt I need more than three hours sleep per night." He sighed. "They've done a lot, and in short time. You remember their leader, John Sheridan? Well you really want to look at the guy's service record." He offered her quite a large document.  
She began reading through it. "General Franklin is calling a meeting, Jack wants the two of us to sit in on it and see if we learn something."  
"Which means explain the long words to him?" Jackson joked. "You now he's smarter than he lets slip."  
"I know." Carter raised her eyebrow as she kept reading. "He died and was reborn?"  
"O'Neill?"  
"Sheridan." Carter corrected. "He has had a fun life."  
Jackson gathered some loose papers. "Well we better get going. Don't want to miss the General's opening line."

"Jackson, Carter, what kept you?" General O'Neill raised his arms as the two team mates walked in. "You missed my anecdote."  
"Yeah, I'll never forgive myself." Jackson said quietly. "Just getting some notes." He said more loudly.  
"Well anyway, we're just starting."  
Alongside O'Neill was General Franklin in Earth Force Khaki and Garibaldi in his same smart suit and open necked shirt. "The General was telling us about killing Apophis."  
"Which time, in orbit?" Carter asked.  
"No, the other time."  
"In hell?"  
"Not that other time, the other-other time." O'Neill replied.  
"You know I kinda lost count." Jackson frowned. "But he hit a planet right?"  
"Bingo." O'Neill smiled. "Anyway, Mr Garibaldi."  
The General sat and allowed the head of the Interstellar Alliance liaison team speak.  
"Well there are two bits of news from the technology side of things." He announced. "First we've managed to set up a hyperspace beacon here in the mountain."  
"Is that like, dangerous?" Jackson asked.  
"Not at all." Garibaldi grinned. "All it does is transmit tachyons which we can read in hyperspace, gives our ships something to guide them on journeys. We've set up another one at the gate and one more by Mars which is where we are planning on moving in some heavy gear in the future."  
"Such as?" Carter asked.

"A fully automated capital class ship yard for one." Garibaldi said. "We figure setting one up here would help unity between our two peoples, especially with the help from your side."  
"We're letting them have some captured Goa'uld weapons in accordance with the treaty." O'Neill said. "Along with a selection of anything else we found which was cool."  
"I've got my team working with the scientists here to stabilise the hybrid weapons combining EA and alien technology on the Prometheus. We know the technology works, it's just getting it to work properly all the time." Garibaldi continued. "Seems you guys have some pretty nifty stuff we can use back home."  
"Ditto." O'Neill said. "For us I mean."  
"We figure the improved power management systems will benefit us all, give our older destroyers more powerful weapons on the same frame and give the SGC ships more variety, the Daedalus already has some secondary guns from an Omega, better missiles and best of all a pair of sixteen inch rail guns."  
"Yeah, I saw them." Carter nodded. "From a Warlock?"  
"The same." The bald executive nodded. "Plus a range of shells from Morbidium Sabot rounds to tactical nukes."  
"Most of the first batch is on the Daedalus. We're working on a Naquadria tipped round." Carter added.  
"Which is just my favourite project this month." O'Neill smiled.  
"So anyway, beacons check." Garibaldi continued. "Next up was some construction bots."

"Some what now?" Jackson stared.  
"Construction robots, we use them back home to build, well, everything." Garibaldi answered. "From warships to door handles. They have limited AI, enough to work out problems in their work but not to think for themselves, Earth has laws prohibiting research into full AI and cyborgs."  
"See?" O'Neill pointed. "Why didn't we think of that before Terminators showed up?"  
"Well, they aren't here yet…" Jackson said.  
"But its too late to prevent Terminator 3 isn't it?" O'Neill sighed. "they should have left it at two."  
"So." Garibaldi cut in. "The US government has reactivated a ship yard derelict from WWII. We're installing the system there and the place should be ready to begin work on building your ships in a month or so. Just programme in the designs and let them do their thing."  
"I'd like permission to observe the set up General." Carter requested.  
"No problem." Agreed O'Neill.  
"Well that issue is taken care of." Garibaldi leaned back. "Still no word from the little grey guy?"  
"Not yet." Answered O'Neill. "I think they're debating what to make of you before they hand over a hyperdrive."  
"That going to take a long time?" he asked.  
"My guess?" O'Neill said. "Ohhhh yeah."

"Finally, ships and defence platforms." Garibaldi turned a page in his notes. "You are now the proud owners of the EAS Longbow and the EAS Diomedes, an Artemis class Frigate and a Hyperion class cruiser."

"Older model ships." Carter recited from memory. "Zero gravity and outdated weapons."

"Well yes and no." Garibaldi said a little embarrassed. "EarthGov is a little reluctant to give up a lot of warships at this stage with the Alliance still in crisis, but they are both solid and tough ships. I've seen these types make it home with half their mass shot away, usually by the Minbari."

"I've looked over the plans and come up with an improvement plan." Carter informed them. "The sheer scale of these ships lets us cram in a lot of technology, hyperdrives and artificial gravity are easy, we can run them off the ships own power grid. Problem is if we want to go anywhere fast."

"These old girls weren't built for speed." Garibaldi explained.

"We'd have to replace the engines which is a major job." Carter said. "Luckily with an orbital shipyard that gets a lot easier. We can rig secondary naquada reactors to provide greater power to the propulsion systems, both Ion engines and hyperdrive to bring them more into line with our 304 class ships, plenty of space for an inertial dampening system, we can keep the jump drives, and the weapons systems are so huge we can fill the turrets with superchargers and enhanced power relays."

"Meaning?" O'Neill asked expectantly.

"It'll totally kick ass."

"Thank you."

Garibaldi hid a smile. "There is another convoy due later today bringing through the first of the defence satellites. As big and honking as space guns come."  
"Which I have some theories about making better." Carter added. "It's to do with compressing the beams to give it more punch per second using Asgard derived gravitic technology, along with some Earth Alliance plasteel barrel linings to allow greater power input from naquadah and even theoretically naquadria generators which should…"  
"Nah nah nah!" O'Neill waved his hands. "I don't need to know how, just make it blow stuff up."  
"Well sir if we can fully modify the system it could destroy a Ha'tak class vessel in one shot."  
"Now you could have just said that and saved a lot of air." The General said. "Or even just said it'll be cool."  
"I'll remember that for the future sir."

"If that is all." General Franklin spoke gruffly. "I have a few items."  
"Please General, go ahead." O'Neill replied.  
"Well first Earth Force has engaged and destroyed a Drakh base on the Centauri border." Franklin said. "We managed to capture a number of items and hopefully can gain a greater insight into their technology and the transmission of the Plague afflicting Earth."  
"Any prisoners General?" Carter asked.  
"Unfortunately no, though we were able to recover a number of bodies we haven't learned anything from them yet."  
"I'd quite like to take a look at one." Carter glanced at O'Neill.  
"We have counsellors for that sort of thing you know." He quipped. "Any chance General?"  
Franklin shrugged. "Can't hurt to ask."  
"I'm afraid we've heard nothing from Atlantis yet." O'Neill said. "They should have arrived days ago."  
"Then lets wish them well." Franklin said. "And send them our prayers."  
"One last thing." O'Neill said. "Cameron Mitchell is now in charge of SG1. Okay, dismiss."  
The General made to dart out of his chair but was no where near fast enough.  
"What?" Jackson's eyes snapped to O'Neill. "When did that happen?"  
"It was time to move on." O'Neill looked at Carter. "To do what was needed."  
She smiled and nodded back. "Colonel Mitchell is a good man and a good choice."  
"He'll start next week, hopefully we can get Teal'c back and start making waves again." He looked at his team, now his former team. "Dismiss."  
Really they still were his team, but rather than being his whole world they were part of something bigger, the whole team of Planetary Security, a group expanding into the ten thousand plus mark. Things hadn't just changed, they had progressed, advanced from where they had started nearly a decade ago. If he tried to stay where he was he would simply be left behind, so the only thing he could do was push forward and do what he had to do to keep Earth safe.  
Just like the old days, but with better guns.

0000000000000

"General Franklin, you got a minute?" Daniel Jackson followed down a corridor.  
The gruff General looked over his shoulder and relaxed a little as he saw Jackson. After reading the history of the SGC he had come to respect the resident expert despite his lack of military standing. "Sure, what can I do for you son?"  
"Actually quite a bit, I have some questions about the Earth Alliance and I figure as a senior member of your government you could help out?"  
Franklin frowned a little. "Well I suppose there's no harm. Step into my office."  
General Franklin led the way into the small room he had been provided with by the Air force, it had the usual compliment of computers, cabinets and a sturdy looking desk which the General kept remarkably tidy, in stark contrast to Jackson's own office. He sat behind the desk and gestured at Jackson to follow his example.  
"Well General it comes down to planetary government." Jackson began. "I've read the history files you provided and it tells me what happened but it all looks a bit vague."  
"Vague?"  
"Yes, like there's some pieces missing, I mean countries tend to be extremely independent so how did you get them all under one banner?"  
"Well it wasn't easy." Franklin said. "It was a combination of economics and fear of being destroyed by their bigger neighbours which formed the Alliance. Either neighbouring countries or ultimately alien races."  
"So first contact cemented the Alliance?" Jackson asked.  
"It did, but the Earth Alliance was formed before we made contact with the Centauri, but it was a bit rocky."  
"After World War III?"  
"That's right, the war had devastated most of Asia and parts of Russia." Franklin said. "Areas of the subcontinent had been turned to radioactive wastelands, tens if not hundreds of millions dead, the Russian and Chinese armies and industries wrecked and half the world hating the American Federation for its deployment of an anti ICBM satellite system."  
"Because by removing the threat of Mutually assured destruction the USA had put itself above nuclear reprisals from potential enemies?"

"That's what they said." Franklin agreed, his family were from Chicago and while citizens of the Alliance still counted themselves as American. "The middle east, parts of Europe, Asia, Russia, all screamed about American Imperialism. They failed to recognize that without the satellite grid most of Asia would be glowing in the dark and the death toll would have been in the billions."  
"Never let facts stand in the way of a good vendetta." Jackson guessed.  
"Something like that, people see what they want to see. The satellites were designed to take out missiles in the boost phase, but scaremongers said they could be used against whole cities with no defence, which was ridiculous!" Franklin scoffed. "Those early systems could barely hurt warplanes! But either way things were grim, not only was the world militarily unstable but the economies of the individual nations were in a terrible state after the war, even the American Federation and European union which had only gotten involved in the final months of the war were suffering, something had to be done to restore that stability."  
"The idea of a planetary government." Jackson stated.  
"The American Federation announced it not long after the war, a United Earth Alliance with its own government and armed forces. First thing the President did was put the American military including the Earth shield defence grid under the flag of the United Earth first, and America second. The idea was rapidly accepted by our allies in Britain, Oceania and most of Europe bar the French."  
"Well that's a surprise." Jackson commented.  
"We offered not just military protection but also free trade and economic assistance." Franklin continued. "And after the devastation of war it was this economic offer which really made a difference, most of Africa and South America joined, Japan and Indonesia were close behind but Russia and China refused, as did the Islamic nations of the middle east."  
"So at first the world government didn't include the whole world?"  
"Not for a long time, it took decades to expand the Earth Alliance. As more nations joined and more resources came into the government we were able to expand into space and set up colonies. We fought raiders, began mining asteroids, developed the Moon, Mars and Io colonies. It was a golden age but with a constant cloud on the horizon, the hold out countries."  
"What happened?"  
"What else? War." Franklin said. "Russia was getting weaker and the Chinese knew it, they were lining themselves up for an invasion so the Russians finally bit the bullet and asked to join the EA. The Chinese were furious and pushed up the invasion, launching a massive attack against Russia and drawing down the full military might of the EA for the first time in open war. It lasted five days, and on the sixth day China surrendered and the war ended. Earth Force had proven itself technologically and organisationally superior to Earths other great army, and it wasn't long after that China also ended up joining after economic and trade sanctions."

"Not exactly a coalition of the willing then?"  
"At first, maybe not." Franklin agreed. "The problem was while most nations were working for a greater purpose and a good life for its people, others weren't. both China and Russia were secretly using advanced Earth Force weapons to equip their own national armies, building their own space going warships outside the EA control. Plus there was the Islamic nations."  
"What did they end up doing?"  
"Well they decide the best way to boost their economies was to invade Isreal and finally conquer it before they lost the chance forever. They launched a few nukes they had acquired and some got through, then invaded. The Israeli army handled them quickly enough, additional EA troops only ended up with the clean up job. We isolated the warlike countries and slapped every sanction we could think of on them. Eventually their people rebelled, the tyrants fell and democracy took over, then they too joined the Alliance. Finally every country on Earth was under the same flag."  
"But it didn't last right?"  
"Remember the countries with their own agenda's?" Franklin said. "Well it all came to a head in the 2150's. A group of Islamic terrorists managed to bypass the Earth shield by sneaking a nuke into San Diego over land, destroting the city. The Alliance went on a war footing, hunting down terrorists across the globe. Tensions rose and the Chinese and Russians prepared their armies which alone outgunned the entire Earth Force official military. They had kill satellites ready to take down Earth shield and space warships armed for battle, we were weeks away from World War IV, and then the Centauri showed up."  
"And gave everyone a new perspective."  
"Exactly, we weren't alone out there and we didn't know if the next aliens we encountered would want trade or conquest. Everything changed, we now saw some of the bigger picture and almost overnight the tensions changed, our weapons went from facing inwards to facing outwards."  
"Lets hope the same thing happens here." Jackson said. "One day we'll have to go public with this program and find a way to tell the people what's happening in space, and the fact we're part of it."  
"You're pretty famous with the alien races then?" Franklin asked.  
"Kind of. Some love us, some want to rip us apart and feed on our souls."  
"Yeah, we've been there." Franklin smiled. "The Koulani, the Ch'lonas, few others. Pretty small races who really don't like us in the Alliance. Of course they keep their distance."  
"Why is that?"  
"Because we totally kick ass." Franklin chuckled. "After the Dilgar war no one tried to threaten our borders anymore. The Dilgar were a major warlike race, they tore apart the League of Non aligned worlds, the main alien alliance in the galaxy, killed billions, wiped out whole worlds. Total massacre." Franklin related his memories. "Then we got involved. It was damn hard work but we turned them back and drove them to utter defeat. After that the League were our best friends and the other major powers treated us with healthy respect. Until the Minbari."

"The guys in blue ships?"  
"Yeah, you know I've never seen a Minbari ship in person?" Franklin said. "I count myself lucky. Most humans who saw one never saw anything else afterwards. The war started after a misunderstanding, a simple mistake and it ended with a fleet ready to level Earth. We fought like hell, but we couldn't stop them. Finally they just stopped and went home, they never said why." Franklin sighed. "Couple of us think they realised after Proxima that subduing Earth would cost them too many warriors, others say they just taught us a lesson and never wanted to kill us all. Sheridan apparently knows the truth, but he isn't saying anything about it."  
"I read losses were heavy." Jackson commented.  
"Losses were virtually total." Franklin corrected. "We barely had enough ships to form a single task force. Those bastard Ch'lonas tried to invade while the Minbari were hitting us and even with heavily damaged ships we sent them running. Sheridan led that strike which kept him from the Line, probably saved his butt." Franklin grunted. "Then we rebuilt, new ships, new factories, new everything. Took us twenty years but we're stronger than ever, I mean you've seen the sort of ships we're fielding."  
"Yeah, big." Jackson agreed. "And you were there?"  
"I took a company against the Dilgar, a battalion against the Minbari and a division after the war. Now I'm here."  
Jackson absorbed the information, if one day his world tried to form a united government they could learn a lot from their colleagues across the gateway. "How is the Alliance set up then, with your colonies and outposts, how is it managed?"  
"We're a democracy, each of the countries on Earth and the colony worlds picks a number of senators based on population, economics and about a million other factors designed to keep things fair. They all gather in Geneva and are responsible or setting worldwide policies and Earth's foreign policies. The actual countries and colonies still have their own functioning governments who are responsible for running their nations and setting internal policy, but they are secondary to the Alliance government at large."  
"So there is a lot of autonomy?"  
"Sure is, and a lot of strong nationalist feelings too. It doesn't conflict with the Alliance as a whole, well except for those Marzies, but a lot of people refer to themselves as American or Russian or whatever."  
"So it's still pretty diverse?"  
"Just as diverse as it is here, but with a common goal." Franklin confirmed. "We realise we're one planet facing a whole universe, a lot of folks out there want to hurt us and we must unite to stop them."

It was exactly what Jackson was hoping would happen here after disclosure, that humanity would see the threat to them and join together for protection at first, and then to work together to create a better planet to live on. But it seemed even with the knowledge of the greater universe out there and aliens all around humanity still seemed to have a desire to kill each other.  
"Do you think you'll ever overcome those old differences?" Jackson asked.  
"Not in my lifetime, or my children's." Franklin replied. "I've fought aliens, but I've also spent a lot of time fighting humans too. Violence is still part of our nature and I don't know if that is something that will ever disappear. You just gotta live with it and try to make something better."  
"I hope this world agrees and can see the big picture." Jackson said. "Because if not it could get nasty after disclosure."  
"I wish you luck, but at least you have friends out there." Franklin said. "And you've got friends in the ISA."

The Prometheus

This wasn't the first time General Hammond had been in space, his command of the Prometheus in the battle to topple Anubis earning him great admiration in the rather limited circles of those who knew and understood what had happened. Still, the Texan didn't get nearly enough time off Terra firma and literally jumped at the chance to take a trip on Prometheus and meet a party of Earth Force ships due to transit the Ancient Gate in the next hour or so.  
"Shouldn't be long now General." Colonel Pendergast said, all but towering over Hammond.  
"It's alright Colonel." Hammond smiled, "I quite like just waiting up here." He looked out of the window onto the black and speckled lights of space, incredibly clear and focused from up here. "I always wondered what it was like up here." He mused. "It's why I joined the Air force, right at the height of the Apollo missions. One day I hoped I'd be one of those guys standing on the moon." He chuckled. "Instead I get alien planets! Even better!"  
Pendergast laughed in agreement. "And now space ships from another dimension." He smiled. "I'd never even guessed this is how I'd end up earning my wings."  
"That's the military for you." Hammond nodded.

"Colonel, we're getting something." The helm officer reported. "Energy surge from the gate."  
"Right on time." Pendergast noted. "This should be quite a sight General."  
"General O'Neill said the Earth force ships were big, but he didn't elaborate."  
"Then you're in for a treat sir, keep an eye on the gate."  
The portal flashed blue and a water like film covered the mouth of the circle, much like the smaller cousin to this gate on Earth and a million other worlds. For a while it rippled calmly giving the impression of a faint breeze here in space until a vessel poked its way through the water. It was actually smaller than Hammond expected, a white and blue vessel similar in scale to the Daeadalus but with noticeable gun turrets on its flanks. More ships followed, modular looking ships with no hint of aerodynamics to them, pure space going freighters in Hammond's opinion.  
"Well, not bad, but O'Neill had me expecting more."  
Then a final ship passed through the gate, its long antennae pushed through followed by an oblong forward hull and a hull which just kept coming and coming, revealing a slowly spinning block in its centre and ending in engines that could have swallowed the SGC ship whole.  
"That was more what we were thinking." Pendergast grinned. "And that isn't even one of their best, you should have been here when the Atlantis force left."  
"I can imagine." Hammond gazed respectfully at the wall of grey metal dominating the forward windows. "Guess we should say hello."

Pedergast quickly set up on the EA frequencies, part of the tech exchange from an earlier meeting were a few Earth Force tachyon communicators which had been happily adopted by the various militaries interested in defending Earth. "This is the Prometheus, welcome back."  
"This is Captain James of the Agamemnon," and answer came. "This is quite something."  
Pendergast laughed slightly. "I could say the same thing. We're here to escort you to the far side of the Moon, there we'll take your cargo and keep you out of sight from the surface."  
"President Sheridan stated the public at large are unaware of alien life." Captain James said. "Must make things difficult."  
"You have no idea." Pendergast joked. "We better get moving, if you'll follow me?"

The trip was shorter than expected, the Agamemnon and its Tethys class escort were surprisingly speedy for such big ships, though not nearly as fast as the Prometheus was able to travel at. Along the way Hammond had a chance to examine the vast warship beside them, the sensors showing where at some point in the recent past the great destroyer had suffered extensive damage.  
"Last time I let John Sheridan borrow my ship!" Captain James had joked. "We took damage fighting the orbital defence grid, the same type of satellites we're giving you in exchange for captured Goa'uld tech."  
"They're pretty powerful then?" Hammond looked over a the large freighters.  
"Yes sir, one of these things fell into the wrong hands it could level countries." James said seriously. "The particle cannons go through any ship we know of in the blink of an eye, they made a pretty mess of the Drakh when they tried to destroy Earth. Just not fast enough." He added sadly.  
"We plan to enhance the missile warheads with naquadah, if it's successful my government is willing to share the process with the Interstellar Alliance."  
"I think the President will really like the idea." Captain James considered. "Enhanced nukes? Yeah he'll really like that."  
The decelerated and began to come to a halt close by the moon. It was an empty and barren place though since the Stargate programme started recovering more data there was a real movement to set up a type of base on its surface. Perhaps with their new friends the SGC could finally realise that dream. The small convoy came to a relative stop and the freighters began to open their bay doors.

"These represent the first batch, mainly for testing." Captain James said. "Our factories on Proxima can build these beauties pretty quickly so it won't take long to set up a full two hundred satellite defence grid, these first sixteen and their control facilities should give you an idea of what we're offering."  
From Prometheus Hammond had a good view of the freighters deploying their cargo. The large round satellites were mostly assembled though they needed their solar panels and heat radiators setting up, a day or so of work for the Alliance weapons technicians.  
"Big honking space guns, as General O'Neill is fond of saying." Pendergast nodded.  
"At last we can have some additional defences for Earth." Hammond said with satisfaction. "The Ancient outpost is fine, but I don't like pinning our hopes on a single defence strategy."  
"Yes sir, and until we get the next batch of 304's online our fleet is going to need back up, a wall of big gun satellites should do the job."  
"Captain James," Hammond announced. "If you're ready we'll transfer over our contribution."  
"Hangar teams standing by."  
The SGC had decided to complete the exchange by providing Earth Force and the ISA with examples of Goa'uld technology recovered from destroyed enemy vessels. The Prometheus used its Asgard teleporters to beam over a selection of weapons and technology including staff weapons and Zat guns, an example of a ring transporter, a sample of Naquadah and most impressive of all a full sized Ha'tak pulse cannon. All of which were stored in the destroyer's expansive cargo bay close to the hangar.  
"Transfer complete." Colonel Prendergast reported.  
"Confirmed, we have it." Captain James replied. "That's some trick!"

"A gift from the gods you could say." Hammond smiled. "An Asgard called Thor to be exact, they have some rather impressive toys."  
"IPX would sell their souls for half this stuff." James grinned. "Well, if they hadn't already sold them a few years ago. Long story."  
"Sounds like." Hammond squinted. "Colonel, getting a bit warm in here, is the air circulation working?"  
"Perfectly fine sir." Prendergast noted. "Are you feeling alright?"  
"Just a little, closed in." Hammond loosened his collar. "I'll be fine, I just need to...sit down."  
Hammond swayed suddenly and toppled, only Pendergast's quick actions stopped him hitting the deck hard. "Medical team to the bridge!" he yelled.  
The General gasped, clutching his chest and forcing breath into his lungs. It felt like a tank was parked on his chest pressing down on his heart.  
"Medics!" Pendergast yelled again before Hammond fell into unconsciousness.

A week later.

O'Neill was dressed casually, a brown jacket and tan coloured pants giving him an unremarkable appearances as he stood on the doorstep. He rang the bell again and rocked up and down on the balls of his feet casting bored glances left and right. The house was extremely well kept, the grass was short and drive way spotless much as O'Neill expected.  
The door was opened by a reasonably attractive young nurse in Airforce medical uniform. "Yes?" she asked.  
"General O'Neill." He introduced himself. "General Hammond sent for me."  
"You better come in." she said with a frown "Though I strongly disapprove, he needs more rest."  
O'Neill followed her in and closed the door. "I won't keep him up past his bed time."  
"Your General had quite a shock to his system, he needs to totally relax for a while until he recovers."  
"Sounds like fun." O'Neill smiled. "Maybe we can go fishing together, nothing like…"  
"No." the nurse snapped. "Now you have fifteen minutes, and no excitement."  
She gestured to a door then walked away under O'Neill's scowl. He opened the door and stepped into a bright room full of windows looking out onto a wide garden. Sat by those windows was General Hammond, looking a lot paler and smaller than O'Neill liked to remember.

"Jack, come in!" Hammond grinned. "Damn it's good to see someone who doesn't want to shove a thermometer up my… how've you been?"  
"Pretty good." O'Neill blanked out where Hammond's sentence had been going. "Keeping busy with all the stuff we do, you know, that stuff at work."  
"It's okay Jack, this place is secure." Hammond nodded. "We can talk freely."  
"Good." O'Neill relaxed. "You'll be glad to know the Atlantis mission made it back about an hour after you… well about an hour later. They made it."  
Hammond nodded, visibly relieved. "Losses?"  
"Lighter than expected for us, much heavier than expected for them." O'Neill said with some satisfaction. "Wraith activity has supposedly dropped off to almost nothing, we hit 'em hard enough to really slow them down and by the time they are moving again in force we should have enough ships and firepower to take them head on."  
"I hear you gave Camron Mitchell SG-1." Hammond said. "Good thing Jack, you know you had to do it."  
"Well so Carter kept telling me."

"Did you get the supplies?" Hammond dropped his voice.  
"Yeah, I thought I'd never get them past that Doberman outside." O'Neill opened his jacket to reveal a bag of assorted chocolates. "Here, I can't believe they banned candy."  
"Too much fuss, it was nothing." He took the gifts and hid them away. "Just a little heart attack."  
"George, there's no such thing as a little Heart attack." O'Neill said seriously. "What did the doctors say?"  
"Sit here and be bored." He grunted. "And the President agreed, I'm on indefinite leave."  
"But with pay?" O'Neill asked quickly.  
"Oh yeah, still getting paid."  
"Full wage and sitting in bed." O'Neill sighed. "You get all the best jobs."  
Hammond chuckled. "Try it for a week and see how you like it!"  
"I wish!" O'Neill laughed. "Been busy with the Alliance guys, and Atlantis."  
"I see." Hammond nodded. "Some pretty major events going on, and I'm stuck here."  
"Not for long." O'Neill encouraged. "You'll be back in a few weeks."  
"That may be, but until then there isn't a head of homeworld defence, LtCol Paul Davis is running the show."  
"He's a solid officer." O'Neill stated.  
"But he isn't ready for the job, especially in the middle of such a shake up. The President has asked me to pick a replacement for the post."  
"The Job that gave you this Heart attack?"  
"That's right."  
"You didn't." O'Neill shook his head.  
"I did, and the President agreed."  
"You were supposed to be my buddy George," O'Neill shook his head. "I smuggled in chocolate and everything!"  
Hammond chuckled. "You'll do great, you are easily the best choice. You know the score and you have a reputation with the alien governments."  
"Which is why I should be as far from responsibility as possible." He frowned. "I just got settled into your old office too."  
"Well now you can settle into my Washington office." Hammond said. "It's a hell of an opportunity Jack, you should take it."  
O'Neill waited for a moment. "Who'll take over the SGC?"  
"I've picked Hank Landry, you remember him?"  
"Yeah, yeah, he's a good guy." O'Neill agreed. "Not as good as me of course…"  
Hammond laughed again, wincing slightly. "Oh, go easy on the wise cracks."  
"Hey, sorry George." He said sincerely. "I'll do the job, but because you asked me to, okay?"  
"That's fine by me, I'll sleep better knowing someone I trust is running things."  
"Alright then." O'Neill nodded. "So how are the Grand kids?"  
"Terrors!" Hammond laughed, and for the next ten minutes the two old friends spoke and shared stories as old soldiers often do, and when their time elapsed O'Neill had a new job to do, and a reason to do it.


End file.
